South Carolina women’s basketball is facing one of the most talked about freshmen in women’s basketball this season.
Aaliyah Chavez finished her high school season as the No. 3 recruit in ESPN’s rankings for the Class of 2025. She is averaging 18.8 points, four rebounds and 4.1 assists for No. 16 Oklahoma.
The No. 2 Gamecocks (19-1, 5-0 SEC) have their first ranked road game of the season against the Sooners (14-4, 2-3) on Jan. 22 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Chavez has started all 18 games and plays 31 minutes per game.
Aaliyah Chavez recruiting ranking for 2025 class
Aaliyah Chavez was the No. 3 recruit in her class last year. She was once the No. 1 recruit in the country but in the late spring, she dropped to No. 3.
Jazzy Davidson entered the college season as the No. 1 ranked player in the 2025 recruiting cycle. She’s now a freshman at Southern Cal, which South Carolina beat on Nov. 15 69-52. She had eight points, three rebounds and three assists in the loss to the Gamecocks.
Sienna Betts, now at UCLA with her sister Lauren, who is the Bruins’ star 6-7 center, was the No. 2 recruit in the final rankings for the 2025 class.
Chavez was named the 2025 Naismith Girls’ High School Player of the Year.
Did South Carolina, Dawn Staley recruit Aaliyah Chavez?
An Instagram post from May 2022 does not include South Carolina among the first 23 schools to give Aaliyah Chavez an offer. Her 247Sports profile does not list South Carolina as a school that made an offer to her.
In a video from July 2024, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was seen at a tournament that Chavez was playing in, where she scored 27 points for her AAU team Cyfair Elite Basketball.
On March 25, 2025, Chavez made her commitment live on “SportsCenter.” The graphic posted by ESPN had six hats on the table and South Carolina was among the six, along with LSU, Oklahoma, UCLA, Texas and Texas Tech.
Aaliyah Chavez NIL
The actual amount that Aaliyah Chavez is making with revenue share and NIL is not public but in October, she signed a NIL shoe deal with Nike.
According to the Oklahoman, “The women’s game is on the rise, and Nike and its athletes are a huge reason for that growth,” Chavez said in a release.
Aaliyah Chavez high school
Aaliyah Chavez is from Lubbock, Texas, and went to Monterey High School.
Aaliyah Chavez stats
Heading into the game against South Carolina, Chavez is averaging 18.8 points, 4.1 assists, four rebounds and 3.2 turnovers per game.
She’s shooting 39% from the floor, making 6.7 of her 17.2 field goal attempts per game. She’s 33.8% from the 3-point line, making 2.9 of her 8.6 attempts from behind the arc per game.
She has 32 total steals and seven blocks. Her career high so far was 33 points against NC State on Dec. 3, giving Oklahoma a 103-98 win in overtime.
She’s scored over 20 points in six different games.
What Joyce Edwards said about playing Aaliyah Chavez
On Jan. 21, South Carolina sophomore forward Joyce Edwards was asked about playing Aaliyah Chavez for the first time.
“She’s a high-volume shooter so people who are like her are scorers and they’re going to get shots off, they’re going to hit shots,” Edwards said. “We just have to disrupt her and we have a game plan we have to execute to minimize her scoring.”
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her on X@Lulukesin and Bluesky@bylulukesin.bsky.social
