Kaleena Smith averaged 31 points, seven assists and four steals a game this season while playing for the No. 1 program in the Southland, but her expanded leadership role is what earns her the honor of The Times\u2019 girls\u2019 basketball player of the year.<\/p>\n
The 5-foot-6 junior point guard marshaled Ontario Christian to the CIF state championships in Sacramento for the first time in the program\u2019s history and along the way her voice spoke almost as loudly as her game \u2014 surprising for someone who is not talkative by nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer numbers speak for themselves but the biggest difference in Kaleena this season has been her leadership,\u201d Knights coach Aundre Cummings, said. \u201cShe\u2019s always coming to practice first and leaving last, which teammates respect, but also knowing when to speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith has been nicknamed \u201cSpecial K\u201d for her talent and charisma, traits that make her one of the top national recruits in the class of 2027. She is garnering attention from multiple college programs. USC women\u2019s coach Lindsay Gottlieb was even on hand to witness Smith score 23 points and contribute six assists in the Southern California regional semifinals against Etiwanda on March 8 and the state championship game against Archbishop Mitty at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m being more vocal, yes, because I\u2019m gonna have to do that in college,\u201d said Smith, who spent countless hours refining her mid-range jumper this winter. \u201cAs captain it\u2019s one of my responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
One hundred games into her high school career, Smith is living up to the hype thrust upon her when she was named MaxPreps\u2019 national freshman of the Year in 2024. She passed the 2,000-point plateau when she scored 51 points against Esperanza in November.<\/p>\n
Smith paced Ontario Christian to the Southern Section Open Division title as a sophomore and although the Knights were denied a repeat (she had 30 points and five assists in a finals defeat to Sierra Canyon) her stats are better in every significant category. Intertwined with her competitive spirit and winning mindset is the maturity and confidence of an upperclassman.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer leadership is what stands out,\u201d sophomore teammate Tatianna Griffin said. \u201cShe\u2019s a very quiet person. I\u2019m not sure it comes naturally or not but when she says something we listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Griffin\u2019s own game has blossomed because of Smith\u2019s willingness to give her the ball in clutch situations, and Smith has been a mentor to freshman Chloe Jenkins, who led the team in rebounds (11.3 per game).<\/p>\n
Adding leadership to her basketball IQ, court vision, defense, quickness, shooting, passing and dribbling has made Smith a complete player, one who is poised for a senior season worth talking about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaleena Smith averaged 31 points, seven assists and four steals a game this season while playing for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6265,104932,99243,423,9514,66636,48,52,51,76476,47,50,49,11053,27411,1417,4576,121,278,1573,72],"class_list":["post-231335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-assist","tag-basketball-player","tag-cif-state-championship","tag-game","tag-girl","tag-kaleena-smith","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-leadership-role","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-november","tag-ontario-christian","tag-point","tag-program","tag-sacramento","tag-season","tag-smith","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}