High School

No. 1 All-American recruit Aaliyah Chavez earns 2025 Naismith Awards honor

Five-star senior earns first-team honor for second consecutive year

Levi Payton

Monterey's Aaliyah Chavez picked up Naismith first-team All-American honors for the second consecutive year.
Monterey's Aaliyah Chavez picked up Naismith first-team All-American honors for the second consecutive year. / Annie Rice/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

One down, one to go for Aaliyah Chavez and the 2025 Naismith Awards.

A finalist for the 2025 Naismith Girls Basketball Player of the Year Award, Chavez on Wednesday was named first team All-American for the second consecutive year by the Naismith Awards. She also won as a junior after scoring 1,324 points - good for 16th all-time in single-season scoring, per MaxPreps.

Chavez also had 353 rebounds, 153 assists, 124 steals and 32 blocks as a junior.

Pretty good, right? Well, she surpassed those marks as a senior. She dished out 28 more assists (181, the second-most of her career since a program-record 260 as a freshman) despite also scoring 1,451 points – good for 10th all-time in a single season.

Read more stories about Aaliyah Chavez's historic career here.

She also finished with 381 rebounds, 155 steals and 50 blocks this season while leading Lubbock Monterey to only its second state championship and first since 1981 with a 64-35 victory over Liberty Hill in the Class 5A Division II state championship on March 1 at The Alamodome in San Antonio.

Chavez is joined on the first team by senior forward Sienna Betts (Grandview HS, Aurora, Colorado), senior guard Jasmine “Jazzy” Davidson (Clackamas HS, Clackamas, Oregon), junior guard Saniyah Hall (Montverde Academy, Montverde, Florida) and sophomore point guard Kaleena Smith (Ontario Christian, Ontario, California).

Fellow Texans Ayla McDowell (Cypress Springs, Cypress), a senior wing, was named Honorable Mention, and junior guard Bella Flemings (Brennan, San Antonio) earned Underclassmen Honorable Mention.

A McDonald's All-American, Chavez is set to participate in the yearly classic with 23 other top players on April 1 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN 2 and online through ESPN platforms.

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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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