High School

Aaliyah Chavez craze hits fever pitch as anticipation grows for final game in top recruit's historic varsity career

Lubbock star poses for photos, signs autographs for throngs of fans in makeshift meet-and-greet following Monterey's 60-57 state semifinal win

Levi Payton

As Lubbock Monterey guard Aaliyah Chavez gets prepared to play in the Class 5A-I state championship on Saturday, anticipation grows amongst fans brace for the final game of her historic high school career.
As Lubbock Monterey guard Aaliyah Chavez gets prepared to play in the Class 5A-I state championship on Saturday, anticipation grows amongst fans brace for the final game of her historic high school career. / Ronald W. Erdrich/Reporter-News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

At the conclusion of Tuesday's Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) Class 5A division I state semifinal game between the No. 5 Lubbock Monterey Lady Plainsmen and No. 6 Frisco Memorial Lady Warriors, the Lubbock ISD broadcast crew wasn't quite ready to sign off.

They wanted to hear from their star player, Aaliyah Chavez, who had just led all scorers with 20 points and helped her Lady Plainsmen (36-5) to its first state finals appearance since 1981.

Problem was, so did everyone else.

The broadcast crew couldn't quite get to the 5-foot-11 five-star recruit - the nation's No. 1 girls recruit for the class of 2025 and one of the nation's all-time leading scorers. That's because, as it often goes after games, Chavez was swarmed with kids and fans eager for photos and autographs.

After about 10 minutes of waiting with no end to the fan appreciation in sight, the crew made the decision to pull the star away for a few moments.

It's a good thing, too. Because the party was just getting started. By the time the postgame interview was complete, the size of the crowd waiting to meet the young phenom had swelled. Soon, a concession area inside Mabee Arena at Hardin-Simmons University was re-opened. Chavez, with her trademark smile and father Sonny near her side, signed scores of autographs and posed for photos for anyone who wanted a memento of the historic moment.

"Oh, my emotions are everywhere," Chavez said after the game.

While the press was waiting for answers, Chavez barely had time to process anything that had just happened. Minutes earlier, her team watched a double-digit lead slip away with the season on the line for the second-straight game, only to storm back with a strong fourth quarter and a dramatic finish - capped by a late basket from Chavez with 41 seconds left to put her team ahead for good.

Aaliyah Chavez
Monterey's Aaliyah Chavez shoots a 3-pointer against Frisco Memorial in a Class 5A Division II state semifinal girls basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, at the Mabee Athletic Complex in Abilene. / Stephen Garcia/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Not lost in the hoopla was the sadness and frustration of watching one of her teammates, 5-3 junior guard Zaniyah Wilkerson - a starter and one of the team's best defenders - go down with what Lady Plainsmen coach Jill Schneider would later reveal to be a feared ACL injury.

Forgive her if her brain was a bit stressed.

"I'm so proud of my team, they did amazing," Chavez said. "I'm so proud of Coach Schneider. She did such a great coaching job."

And right then, with a sudden sigh, it seemed to hit her.

"Wow. We're going to state, man," she exclaimed.

Indeed. It's a place Chavez has dreamed of taking the Lady Plainsmen. Building a program and vowing to bring a state championship to Monterey is something she spoke of long ago. It's why, she said, she chose to stay in Lubbock rather than transferring to a school with an already loaded program.

She likes a challenge.

Sonny Chavez - Aaliyah Chavez
Sonny Chavez celebrates a basket by his daughter, Monterey's Aaliyah Chavez, against Frisco Memorial in a Class 5A Division II state semifinal girls basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, at the Mabee Athletic Complex in Abilene. / Stephen Garcia/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Now, in her final season, and in the final game of her high school career, she'll get her one and only shot to do just that.

"I think we've got it," Chavez said. "This team has been through so much and we're just proving everybody wrong and that's what we need.

"I think we're a team proving people wrong."

Proving people wrong is what Chavez has built her career on. Lost in Tuesday's win, she moved into 15th-place all-time on MaxPreps' career scoring list when she hit bookends of three foul shots to open the game, surpassing Jacksonville, Florida's Antoinette Bannister (Potter's House Christian, 2008-2012), who had 4,758 career points.

Chavez now has 4,777 career points, just 13 behind Lindsay Roy (Delta Academy, Marks, Mississippi) for 14th. Her career-high 1,432 points this season is currently good for 11th all-time, just 17 points outside of 10th place, 34 shy of ninth and 38 away from eighth.

She already knocked herself from 15th all-time in that category to 16th this season after surpassing her own high mark of 1,324 points a year ago.

Aaliyah Chavez
Monterey's Aaliyah Chavez dribbles against Frisco Memorial in a Class 5A Division II state semifinal girls basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, at the Mabee Athletic Complex in Abilene. / Stephen Garcia/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Being famous comes with great fandom, especially when you're one of the greatest statistical high school basketball players to have ever lived.

Despite the distractions and everyone wanting a piece of her time, Chavez is soaking it all in and seemingly enjoying the moment. She knows this won't last much longer. Just one more game to go, but it's easily her biggest.

Monterey hasn't won a state title since its last trip in 1981, and she'd like to leave the school with more than just memories of her great career. She wants to hang a banner.

"It doesn't matter how many you win by, as long as you won," Chavez said. "And we won.

"And I'm like, 'wow.'"

And so are her fans. Like, wow.

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Levi Payton
LEVI PAYTON

Levi’s sports journalism career began in 2005. A Missouri native, he’s won multiple Press Association awards for feature writing and has served as a writer and editor covering high school sports as well as working beats in professional baseball, NCAA football, basketball, baseball and soccer. If you have a good story, he’d love to tell it.

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