SC’s Queens of the Castle Showcase – Sunshine & Valley Standouts

Westwood High School is located in Blythewood, South Carolina – a suburb of the state’s capital city of Columbia. It recently hosted the first ever Queens of the Castle Showcase which hosted teams from several states. Ten teams in all participated. While most of those teams were in-state teams, a few of them were from other states – more specifically North Carolina, Florida and Arizona. Prep Girls Hoops was on hand in Blythewood to take in all of the exciting basketball that took place. Here is a look at who stood out from the Sunshine State and the Grand Canyon State. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="91554" first="Janiah" last="Barker"] – 2022 – Montverde Academy (FL)</strong> – Barker may call Florida home now, but the Marietta (GA) native recently announced her commitment to play collegiately for the Georgia Bulldogs and its head coach Joni Taylor. She displayed exactly why elite women’s basketball schools like Georgia, Duke, Louisville and South Carolina had her on their radars. She will match an opposing ball carrier step for step, does plenty of work on the glass and can dribble effectively against a number of defenders. In the Eagles’ 64-54 victory over South Carolina-based Camden, Barker finished with a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds in addition to three steals and one block. Barker is also a two-time gold medalist with USA Basketball. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="91559" first="Jordana" last="Codio"] – 2022 – Montverde Academy (FL)</strong> – Barker is not the only Eagles player that recently committed to an elite Division I program. Codio, who previously played at American Heritage School in Delray Beach, logged the most minutes in the Eagles’ game against Camden and finished with 10 points, three assists and a steal. Codio will shoot the 3, gets out in transition and is a gifted distributor of the ball. Earlier this year, Codio announced that she would be taking her talents collegiately to the University of Texas – the same school that sent Charli Collier to the WNBA’s Dallas Wings with the first pick in its most recent draft. Codio was a former Wisconsin commit. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="219954" first="Fatima" last="Diakhate"] – 2022 – Montverde Academy (FL)</strong> – Unlike her teammates Barker and Codio, Diakhate, who hoops on the grassroots circuit with Essence, will stay in the Sunshine State for collegiate career as she committed to the University of Central Florida. There are many things that one can coach, but being 6-foot-6 as Diakhate is gives any team a natural advantage in the low post. As much as she plays the five, she will also either receive the ball on the perimeter or run out to play perimeter defense along with the number of blocked shots she accumulates. She had three in the Eagles win over Camden in addition to a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds. Diakhate has also played on the Canadian U16 national team. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="219953" first="Fernanda" last="Ovalle"] – 2022 – Montverde Academy (FL)</strong> – Ovalle is another on the Eagles who has worn her fair share of noteworthy basketball uniforms – including Montverde’s. She will soon call Cincinnati home as she recently committed to playing collegiately at Xavier. Ovalle is versatile as she has displayed throughout her career an ability to play either as a forward or as a guard. Ovalle knows how to make the right passes to her teammates, block shots and also collect rebounds. Ovalle had 11 points, four rebounds, four assists and two blocks in the Eagles’ win over Camden. She also played for Chile at the FIBA U16 Americas Championship in 2019 – one hosted by Chile. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="114253" first="Kam’Ren" last="Rhodes"] – 2022 – Arizona Compass Prep</strong> – Where Rhodes will call home for her next four seasons will not be far from where Ovalle will. In February, Rhodes announced her commitment to the University of Dayton Flyers. She is a native of Warrenton, Georgia in the Augusta area. Rhodes scored 12 points in the Dragons’ game on Friday against the Eagles of Montverde Academy. She made a number of her tries from 3-point range in that game as well. Rhodes will get a team a number of rebounds along with making her free throws. She brought in three rebounds in the game with the Eagles. <strong>Deborah Altshuler – 2022 - Arizona Compass Prep</strong> – Altshuler’s career has brought her to the Dragons and has included a stint where she played high school ball for Erie High School in Colorado north of Denver. The Tigers, last season, advanced to the elite eight of the Colorado 4A state playoffs. Altshuler can hit her 3-point attempts and will come away with a good number of steals. She can also hit her free throw attempts. She was the Dragons’ leading scorer in its 50-40 win on Thursday against host school Westwood with 18 points to go along with three steals. She has a sister, Jennifer Altshuler (2024) who plays at Highlands Ranch High School – also in the Denver area. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="208246" first="Saniyah" last="Craig"] – 2023 - Arizona Compass Prep</strong> – Previously, Craig used to wear the red and (Columbia) blue of South Mountain High School in Phoenix. What was the Jaguars’ loss has become the Dragons’ game. Craig is a potent rebounder as she had 13 off the glass in Arizona Compass’ contest against Winston Salem Christian National. She also scored seven points that game. Craig also tallied 11 points in 19 minutes when the Dragons defeated host school Westwood by a final of 50-40 on the first day of the Queens of the Castle Showcase. She also had three rebounds, one block and went four out of five from the field. &nbsp;