LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Before Ziaire Williams came out of the Sierra Canyon locker room for a short postgame interview, we were warned.
"No recruiting questions," a team official said. "Everybody got it?"
OK, then. It wasn't really an appropriate time to ask Williams about recruiting anyway, with the Arizona target having scored 25 points to lead Sierra Canyon to the CIF Southern Section Open Division championship against Mater Dei on Friday night at the Pyramid.
The look on his face in the half-hour or so after the game, and the comments he made, clearly suggested Williams was all about the moment, anyway.
Oh, and also the box score line: He had 25 points on 9-for-17 shooting, 5-for-6 free throws, six rebounds, four assists, four steals and one block with only one turnover.
As a 6-foot-8 point forward of sorts.
"I was trying to do whatever it takes to win -- rebound, score, find the open man, just whatever it takes," Williams said, still grinning long after the photos had been taken and trophies handed out. "I've been waiting for this game my whole high school career so that was definitely where the motivation came from. But we just got it done. It was definitely a team effort for sure."
With a star-studded roster that includes the sons of LeBron James (Bronny) and Dwyane Wade (Ziare), Sierra Canyon held perennial Orange County powerhouse Mater Dei to just 36.2% shooting and helped force 14 turnovers.
Kentucky commit Devin Askew, a former UA target, had 15 points (with one bucket coming at the end of the game after he stole the ball when Sierra Canyon was dribbling it out) but six turnovers with only one assist for Mater Dei.
"This game was really one of the most mental games I've ever played for sure," Williams said. "We had so many different play calls defensively for all their sets. We spent countless hours watching film this week, individually and as a group, so it was definitely quite a lot of focus, but we start with Dre's (head coach Andre Chevalier) and the assistant coaches' and we got it done."
And as for recruiting? Arizona, USC and Stanford are believed to be among Williams' top choices but a lot can change between now and whenever he wants to decide -- because Williams is the kind of unusually skilled player that anybody will wait as long as he wants to decide.
