Gilbert Arenas' son Alijah Arenas and Trevor Ariza's son Tajh Ariza share Player of the year honors at the CIF All-City Open Division

It has been a wild 2025 so far for five-star USC commit Alijah Arenas, the son of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas. In just the span of a few months, he has committed to USC, led the Chatsworth Chancellors to the CIF City Section Open Division final, and a couple of weeks later, led the team to the CIF Division II final on Monday.

Even though he made it to two big championship games in a row, Alijah failed to win any title for his team. Despite this, he was named the co-winner of the CIF All-City Open Division Player of the Year award. The other winner is the son of Trevor Ariza, five-star Westchester guard Tajh Ariza.

Alijah Arenas shares news that he won CIF Player of the Year honors (Source: Instagram/ alijah0arenas)

The post also revealed that Westchester coach Dewitt Cotton also won the All-City Open Division Coach of the Year award. It also revealed the players named for the division's 1st Team, which included two Westchester stars. No teammate of Alijah Arenas made the 1st Team.

It was Tajh Ariza and the Westchester Comets that defeated Arenas and the Chatsworth Chancellors during last month's CIF City Section Open Division final. The two teams met again during the CIF Division II semifinals, with Chatsworth getting its revenge to move on to the final in Sacramento. However, the Chancellors fell to Jesuit 66–53 last Saturday.

Tough defense limited Alijah Arenas in CIF Division II Final vs. Jesuit

Alijah Arenas came into that finals showdown as one of the most prolific scorers in high school basketball, averaging 30 points per game and is known to be able to score between 40-60 points. However, Jesuit controlled the pace during last Saturday's game and limited the five-star USC commit's scoring.

The eldest son of Gilbert Arenas and Laura Govan only scored 22 points during that game, with Jesuit clamping down on him during the fourth quarter, forcing him to miss all seven of his shots. Jesuit employed zone defense which forced Alijah to take shots he normally would not. Still, he reached his 3,000-point milestone during that game, being only the 15th California player to do so.

“We should have played harder,” he said during the post-game press conference. . “It was effort, (Jesuit) had more of it on both ends. We should have stuck together a little bit more.”

This was an emotional loss for Arenas, as this was also his final game in his high school basketball career.