High School

Aaliyah Chavez, nation's top girls basketball prospect, scores 50 in season-ending loss

Star Lubbock Monterey guard nets fourth 50-point game of season in Texas high school playoffs

Andy Buhler, SBLive Sports

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.

Top 26 Texas high school girls basketball players in 2023-24

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.
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

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Andy Buhler, SBLive Sports
ANDY BUHLER, SBLIVE SPORTS

Andy Buhler is a Regional Editor of Texas and the national breaking news desk. He brings more than five years of experience covering high school sports across the state of Washington and beyond, where he covered the likes of Paolo Banchero and Tari Eason served on state tournament seeding committees. He works on the SBLive/Sports Illustrated Power 25 national boys basketball rankings. He has covered everything from the Final Four, MLS in Atlanta to local velodrome before diving into the world of preps. His bylines can be found in The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington), The Associated Press, The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington), The Oregonian and more. He holds a degree from Gonzaga and is based out of Portland, Oregon.

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