2023-24 MaxPreps National Player of the Year: Jaloni Cambridge of Florida selected as high school girls basketball's best

In the game of basketball, stars like Jaloni Cambridge shine brightest when it matters most.

Aaccording to Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) Matt Shewmake, they have their own gravitational pull.

"She's her own solar system on the basketball court," Shewmake said. "She has so much gravity with the defense that everyone benefits."

Nowhere was that more apparent than at Chipotle Nationals, where Montverde won its third straight event title.

In a battle royale against then-No. 1 Long Island Lutheran (Brookville, N.Y.), Cambridge went for a game-high 33 points, willing her team to victory with an insane right-handed fall away from the left side of the key for the game winner. But she also drew so much defensive attention that it freed up her teammates to shine as well.

Cambridge is this year's MaxPreps National Player of the Year after averaging 20.7 points, 9.0 assists and 3.7 steals per game. Montverde Academy went 24-4 and finished No. 3 in the final MaxPreps Top 25. She said she looked up to past MaxPreps Players of the Year and is honored to carry that torch as she heads to Ohio State.

"My main goal is to give back and set an example for girls like me who want to be better," Cambridge said.

She said past MaxPreps Players of the Year like Juju Waktins, Paige Bueckers, Sabrina Ionescu and Maya Moore helped pave the way for the women's game to grow and really step into the spotlight in the past few years. Cambridge said she hopes her name will be among those future generations talk about.

"They had a goal in mind (to be the best) and I have that too. I want to help those coming up behind me by being that example," Cambridge said.

And while that shot will long be remembered by hoop heads, it's other subtle things that makes Cambridge a generational player according to Shewmake

The coach said that while her shot against Long Island Lutheran was the definition of clutch, it was her ability to draw defenses to her, especially in the second half, that allowed teammates Chloe Sotell and freshman Finley Chastain to hit a combined five 3-pointers in their 79-78 victory.

"I'm a pass-first point guard," Cambridge said. "I'm blessed to be around great players 1 through 5. I want them to make it and I have that ability to trust they will.

"You're not going to make every shot, but it's always about what can we do for the team and that next play?"

Shewmake, who had been coach at The Webb School in Tennessee, took the Montverde Academy job after Special Jennings left for a college job and said convincing Cambridge to leave Ensworth to play for him was the easiest conversation of his life.

"I have coached both her sisters in AAU and remembered seeing Jaloni in the gym as an 8 or 9 year old and thinking ‘That girl is special,'" he said. I was at dinner with her sister Kennedy right after I got the Montverde job and she texted Kennedy and said ‘I want to play for Shew.' "

He said conversations with the family were easy as her folks simply said "Take care of my baby."

"Honestly, she's taken more care of me," Shewmake said.

The coach says she has an assassin's mentality and her speed presents problems as it's not linear – point A to point B – but what he called functional, using her arsenal of skills to be faster to where she sees in her mind.

"That automatically gives her an advantage," he said.

Cambridge, for her part, said her high basketball IQ is her biggest strength and that she's not satisfied with her shooting ability, constantly striving to improve her percentages.

And what about that infamous shot against Long Island Lutheran?

Cambridge said it was the exact shot that didn't drop in a game against IMG Academy earlier in the season