Ontario Christian named The Sporting News 2025-26 high school girls basketball national champion
Top-ranked junior Kaleena Smith averaged 31.5 points and 6.9 assists per game as Ontario Christian went 34-2 with a California Open Division state championship.
Ontario Christian named The Sporting News 2025-26 high school girls basketball national champion originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . It doesn't always take perfection to be crowned a national champion.
Sometimes, "merely" a season for the ages will do it. Led by Kaleena Smith, the nation's top junior, Ontario Christian finished what it started in previous seasons, following up the first CIF-Southern Section Open Division title in program history a year ago with its first Open Division state championship and national title in 2025-26. All in Aundre Cummings' first two seasons at the helm.
The Knights went 34-2 against arguably the nation's toughest schedule and finished in style with a nail-biting 56-49 victory over No. 3 Archbishop Mitty in California's state finals. Cementing their historic season with a state championship proved to be the sole determining factor for Ontario Christian, which eliminated Mitty itself and benefitted from No.
11 Bullis' 62-50 upset over No. 2 Bishop McNamara in Maryland's private school championship game. SN NATIONAL TOP 25: California schools dominante final season-end rankings Throughout the course of the regular season, Ontario Christian was never ranked lower than second and took down eight teams that finished ranked in either SN's or MaxPreps' season-end top 50.
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