Santa Barbara High senior Amber Melgoza has made a decision to play at University of Washington. (John Dvorak/Presidio Sports)
Santa Barbara High basketball star Amber Melgoza has committed to Washington of the Pac-12 Conference, Dons coach Andrew Butcher confirmed Tuesday.
Butcher said Washington coaches visited with Melgoza on Monday.
“Washington will be a really good fit for her,” he said. “Hopefully, she’ll do well. I know she won’t hold herself back. She’ll do what they ask and more. It’s exciting.”
Washington is a program on the rise under third-year head coach Mike Neighbors. The team won 23 games last season — the most since 1995 — and made the NCAA Tournament.
Melgoza is the all-time leading scorer in Santa Barbara girls basketball history. She was being recruited by several schools, including some from major conferences like Pac-12 member Oregon State, Vanderbilt of the SEC and Texas Tech of the Big 12 Conference.
Butcher said she is the most highly recruited player from his program since Lisa Willett in 2000. Willett played four years at UCSB and had a solid career.
Melgoza is coming off an outstanding junior season in which she averaged 33.5 points a game and scored more than 1,000 points. She had six 40-point games, 10 30-point games and scored 50 in a CIF Division 2AA playoff game.
As a sophomore, she helped the team win the CIF-SS 3AA title and reach the Division 3 state championship game.
