No matter where Amalia Holguin goes, she understands the legacy she carries.
Holguin is the youngest protégé from Kobe Bryant’s Mamba youth girls basketball team. She famously played alongside Bryant’s daughter Gianna. Six years after their tragic death, Holguin remains the last active high school player coached by Bryant.
While Holguin and Sage Hill lost 86-54 to top-seeded Ontario Christian in the semifinals of California’s Southern Section Open Division, it was what happened postgame that stole the headlines.
To honor Holguin and her relationship with Bryant, Ontario Christian gifted her a concrete mural of Bryant.
Holguin has blossomed from the smallest and youngest player on that final Bryant team to one of the best high school basketball players in the country. Rated a 4-star prospect by 247sports and ESPN, Holguin is a 5-9 shooting guard committed to Texas.
One of the best moments of her high school career was her senior night a month ago.
It was fitting that the Lightning senior channeled her inner mamba mentality and struck for 61 points — yes, sixty-one — burying an Orange County single-game record 14 three-pointers in a 101-26 dismantling of visiting Laguna Beach.
By the time the third quarter ended, the record books were already smoldering. By the time she checked out, history had been rewritten.
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Holguin’s shooting display broke Buena Park’s Isabelle Avalos’ county record of 13 threes set in 2020. She also reached the 2,000-point milestone for her career — all at Sage Hill — and did most of the damage before the fourth quarter even mattered.
Magnolia’s Teresa Martinez still owns the county scoring record at 69 points, but this night belonged to Holguin.
You could see flashes of Bryant in how Holguin moves with the ball in her hands without panic, how she hunts angles, and how much she loves and respects the game.
Holguin has credited Bryant and his coaching for helping her fall in love with basketball — not just the scoring, but the discipline, the intent, the demand for precision.
