Column: Canyon High’s Brandon Benjamin is making the most of his senior season

Watching Anaheim Canyon’s 6-foot-5 senior Brandon Benjamin score, rebound, pass and continuously make a difference on a basketball court against everyone and anyone brings back memories of Jaime Jaquez Jr., who looks like his twin.

“I like the comparison,” coach Nathan Harrison said.

Jaquez used to deploy many different skills during his days at Camarillo High. Some wondered if they would translate at a higher level. Well, they did, first at UCLA and now with the Miami Heat.

The same will be said one day of Benjamin, who’s averaging 30.7 points and is committed to San Diego. Last Saturday, after a game against previously unbeaten Mira Costa in which he scored 30 points with zero turnovers, Mira Costa coach Neal Perlmutter said, “That’s hard to do.”

Said Benjamin: “I just feel you have to play smart, you have to make the right decisions and you can’t force things.”

Then on Monday at the Intuit Dome, he scored 29 points in an overtime win over San Gabriel Academy. It doesn’t matter the opponent or the venue, Benjamin consistently delivers.

Canyon High’s Brandon Benjamin has been having a stellar senior season.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Benjamin has gotten used to being double teamed so many times that he knows exactly how to get the ball to teammates. He grew up with opponents trying to trap him as a youth player and Harrison has worked on box-and-one defenses in practices to prepare Benjamin.

“I got used to it, learning how to move around and not get frustrated,” he said.

Benjamin is proof you can return home and be welcomed with open arms. He left to play his junior season at Mater Dei, where he led the Monarchs in rebounding (8.4 per game) and was the fourth-leading scorer (13.7), then returned to Canyon last March.

He’s not going to lie about what it was like walking around the Canyon campus in his return.

“At first, it was little awkward seeing people you know and haven’t seen in a year and were buddy-buddy with,” he said. “After a week or two, I still had a lot of friends. I felt real relaxed. I felt like I was home.”

Benjamin said his Mater Dei experience was mostly positive, complimenting coach Gary McKnight.

“I enjoyed it,” he said. “Not everything is perfect in this life. I have nothing negative to say, only good things about coach McKnight.”

His return to Canyon has worked out. He likes the neighborhood atmosphere at games and appreciates Harrison letting him do what he does best — be himself.

“He has a reputation as this incredible scorer, but he’s just as effective as a passer and kind of runs our team as a point guard,” Harrison said. “The zero turnovers is even more impressive considering how many times he’s touching the ball. He makes all the players so much better.”

Even more intriguing is how Benjamin is preparing himself for college. He’s played forward or center for all four years of high school. At 17, he still has plenty of room to improve, and he’s been working on his guard skills because that’s what San Diego coach Steve Lavin wants him to play.

“I’ve been trying to work on my quickness, strength, ballhandling,” Benjamin said. “He wants me to play guard. It’s going to be a challenge because playing center/forward until now in high school, [this] is something new. I’m down for the challenge.”

Canyon fans have Benjamin’s back, and Harrison is just thankful to have a chance to coach him again.

“We’ve always liked Brandon,” he said. “We appreciated how hard he played for us. We just live in a different era. You can’t take it personally. Young people have a lot in their ears. He’s very comfortable with us and we think we do a good job utilizing our kids.”

As for lessons learned, Benjamin said, “If some of these guys are [as] good as they say, they should stay at their school and try to make themselves a winning school. A lot of college coaches don’t look at high school ball. It’s really the AAU circuit. I feel that’s the path to success.”