Westlake (Georgia) ran the table last year and brought home the Geico Nationals championship. Graduation and transfers make a repeat highly unlikely.
It is a wide-open field this season. DeSoto (Texas) boasts three espnW 100 players. Montverde Academy (Florida) added Georgia-bound star Janiah Barker to its roster. La Jolla Country Day and Sierra Canyon are two of California’s premier high schools.
The duo of UCLA-bound Kiki Rice and 10th-ranked junior Jadyn Donovan, who is undeclared, led top-ranked Sidwell Friends (D.C.) to two wins at the Girls’ Basketball Invitational, a four-team tournament that featured three of the top schools in the country.
Sidwell defeated 2023 Stanford commit Sunaja Agara and Hopkins (Minn.) in the semifinals 67-55, while Amina Muhammad and DeSoto beat Grandview (Colorado), led by top-rated Stanford signee Lauren Betts, 68-54.
In the championship game, Sidwell defeated DeSoto 60-55 in a rematch from their December meeting that Sidwell also won. Hopkins beat Grandview 66-37 for third place.
We are ranking the top programs for the 2021-22 season. Below is the ESPN High School Girls’ Basketball Top 25 for the week of Jan. 24, 2022:
1. Sidwell Friends (D.C.), 11-0
2. DeSoto (Texas), 22-2
3. Hopkins (Minn.), 14-1
4. Etiwanda HS (Calif.), 15-0
5. St. John Vianney (N.J.), 12-0
6. DME (Fla.), 20-1
7. Classen SAS (OK), 14-1
8. La Jolla Country Day (Calif.), 16-2
9. Sierra Canyon (Calif.), 20-1
10. New Hope (Md.), 18-2
11. Lake Highland Prep (Fla.), 17-3
12. Conway (Ark.), 17-1
13. Montverde (Fla.), 16-3
14. Cedar Park (Texas), 23-0
15. Bishop McNamara (Md.), 9-4
16. South Bend Washington (Ind.), 19-2
17. Duncanville (Texas), 26-5
18. Incarnate Word (Mo.), 14-0
19. Fremont (Utah), 14-2
20. Detroit Edison (Mich.), 9-1
21. St. Paul VI (Va.), 12-3
22. Rock Bridge (Mo.), 15-0
23. Hazel Green (Ala.), 25-0
24. Woodward Academy (Ga.), 16-2
25. Homestead (Ind.), 19-1
