High School

Kaleena Smith builds prep legend, outduels McKenna Woliczko in 2-OT girls basketball classic

Nation's No. 1 recruit finishes off one of great girls basketball games in California history with her team's last 11 points as No. 1 Ontario Christian stuns No. 3 Mitty

Mitch Stephens

Kaleena Smith, Ontario Christian junior point guard and No. 1 recruit for the 2027 class, outdid herself if that's possible with a 50-point explosion lead her No. 1 ranked team in the country over No. 3 Mitty in a double-overtime classic.
Kaleena Smith, Ontario Christian junior point guard and No. 1 recruit for the 2027 class, outdid herself if that's possible with a 50-point explosion lead her No. 1 ranked team in the country over No. 3 Mitty in a double-overtime classic. / Dennis Lee

The lofty reputations of the California girls basketball teams from Ontario Christian and Archbishop Mitty were furthered Saturday with a double-overtime instant classic.

Kaleena Smith cemented her prep legend by not letting her team wilt and then scoring 50 points — the fourth 50-point-plus performance of her remarkable young career — leading No. 1 Ontario Christian to a 96-87 victory over the third-ranked Monarchs (12-2) in the premier game of the Kay Yow Showcase at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif.

Smith, a 5-foot-6 junior guard, scored her team's final 11 points in the second overtime and added 12 in the fourth quarter when the Knights, who had fouled out two of their nine players, fought back from a 73-61 deficit with 4:08 left in regulation.

Smith also had four steals and made 9 of her 10 free throw attempts, the Knights (20-0) were 23 of 25 from the line (92%), while Mitty (12-2) was a 16 of 28 (57%).

The Knights not only shot better from the foul line but hurt the Monarchs badly with 25 offensive rebounds including seven by Tatiana Griffin. They also forced most of Mitty's 16 turnovers over the last 12 minutes of play.

Mitty, even with more depth, didn't take advantage and actually seemed to run out of gas, scoring just four points in the second OT period, compared to 13 for Ontario Christian.

Smith made five 3-pointers but all of her makes in the second OT were on 2s via pretty pullups or uncontested fastbreak layups. Griffin added 20 points and 20 rebounds and Dani Robinson contributed 16, including a key three-pointer during a 17-5 run to close regulation.

High school girls basketball
Ontario Christian sophomore Tati Griffin (12) had 20 points and 20 rebounds on Saturday against Mitty. She also led OC to a win over Mitty last season at the Sabrina Ionescu Showcase (shown here). / Photo: Dennis Lee

Smith told Pete Marshall of the Press-Enterprise: "I was encouraging my teammates that the game was not over. Going into the fourth quarter, we still had eight minutes left and that a lot of time for us."

Iowa-bound McKenna Woliczko, in her fourth game back from a torn ACL, was terrific for Mitty with 25 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks. In the previous three games, the 6-2 wing played less than half of each contest but she put in nearly 34 minutes on Saturday.

Ze'ni Patterson made five key three-pointers and added 21 points, Maliya Hunter and Devin Cosgriff contributed 13 points apiece and Tee McCarthy had 10 for Mitty, which led almost all of the second half.

Two free throws by Woliczko made it 73-61 with 4:08 left, before the Knights went on an 8-0 run. A 3-pointer by Hunter after her own offensive rebound, seemed to reseal the win for Mitty, up 76-69 with just over a minute left.

But Smith, who played most of the fourth quarter and both overtimes with four fouls, made a steal in the back court and scored a layup and after another turnover, Robinson drilled a three-pointer to make it 76-74. Woliczko calmly sank a midrange jumper to go up 78-74 with 40 seconds left, but once more than Knights would not wilt.

Griffin drilled a 10-footer in the lane with 30 seconds left and after a MItty turnover, Smith sank two free throws with 4.7 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 78-78 and send the game to overtime.

"I feel like we picked up our defensive intensity," Smith told Marshall. "It was showing people why we're No. 1."

Each team scored five points in the first overtime. Mitty had the last shot but a desperation attempt by Hunter wasn't close.

In the second overtime, it was all Smith, who entered the game averaging 32.3 points, 7.6 assists and 4.8 steals per game. She got better as the game went on, scoring six in he first quarter, nine in the second, nine in the third, 12 in the fourth, three in first overtime and 11 in the second OT.

CALIFORNIA RANKINGS | Ontario Christian, Mitty 1-2

The half-century total wasn't Smith's season high. She had 51 points in a 113-34 win over Esperanza on Nov. 25 and has scored at least 30 15 times this season including 31 on Friday night in a 86-51 win over Saint Joseph of Lakewood.

Her career high came as a freshman when she exploded for 62 points in a 132-21 win over Linfield Christian. That same season she scored 55 points in a game. All of those 50-plus games were against inferior opponents, but Saturday's performance was so was special because it came against the nationally-ranked Monarchs, who are largely built on defense.

This was the third meeting between the two teams in the last two seasons, with Ontario Christian winning its second. The teams could easily meet a second team in the CIF Open Division championship in March at Sacramento's Golden 1 Center.

Mitty coach Sue Phillips, by phone several hours after the game, said she was "most pleased with our relentless competitive spirt." But she did add: "We need to shore up finding and rooting out players on the defensive boards, improve our percentage from the foul line, and value the basketball with time and score.

"When you're up seven and 1:30 to go there are definite lessons to be learned on how to secure the win. ... Back to work."

high school girls basketball
box score of Ontario Christian vs. MItty gamer / Mater Dei stat cre
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Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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