Aaliyah Chavez, nation's top girls basketball prospect, scores 50 in season-ending loss
The nation's No. 1 rated girls basketball prospect put forward one last show-stopping performance in a season-ending Texas high school girls basketball playoff loss on Monday night.
Monterey (Lubbock) guard Aaliyah Chavez, the nation's No. 1 2025 prospect per ESPN's HoopGurlz, poured 50 points on Amarillo (Texas), including 19 in the fourth quarter, but Monterey came up short, 75-68, in the UIL 5A Region 1 quarterfinals.
Chavez's 50-burger came on 35 shot attempts (18 makes; 51 percent), including 6-for-15 shooting from 3-point range, which was seven points shy of her season-high of 57 points (on 70 percent shooting) in a November win over Plano.
The crafty, 5-foot-9 guard accounting for the vast majority of her team's offense in a big game is nothing new.
She was named an SBLive Sophomore All-American in 2022-23, averaging 30 points, 7.2 boards, 5.2 assists and 3.1 steals per game. As a junior, she averaged 37.8 points, 10.1 boards, 4.4 assists and 3.5 steals per game as Lubbock Monterey ran the table (12-0) to win a 5A District 4 title.
Amarillo faces nationally ranked Mansfield Timberview in the regional semifinals on Friday.
Monterey's Aaliyah Chavez claps her hands after missing a 3 against Amarillo in the UIL 5A Region I quarterfinals on Monday at the Hutcherson Center in Plainview.
Photo by Annie Rice, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, USA TODAY NETWORK
-- Andy Buhler | andy@scorebooklive.com | @sblivetx
