Hannah Hidalgo, Aaliyah Chavez lead Top 10 Latinas in NCAA women’s hoops
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Perla Paredes Hernández, Contributor
- November 21, 2025
Hannah Hidalgo, Aaliyah Chavez named to Wooden Award Watch List
The scoreboard read 7:04 in the fourth quarter at Purcell Pavilion when Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo reached a program-record 44 points against Akron. Fourteen seconds later, the junior All-American recorded her 16th steal of the night and set a new NCAA Division I record on Nov. 12.
The women’s college basketball season is barely underway, and Hannah Hidalgo has already broken records. For the third consecutive season, Hidalgo is one of the best players in women’s college basketball while leading another impressive group of Latinas in women’s hoops.
You won’t be able to tell the story of women’s college basketball this season without Latinas playing crucial roles at every major conference. The future is bright yet again, especially with Oklahoma freshman phenom Aaliyah Chavez showing why she was ranked the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2025.
Hannah Hidalgo, the ACC preseason player of the year, appears on the Wade Trophy, Wooden Award, Lieberman Award and Naismith Award watch lists. She is a preseason AP All-American and enters the 2025-26 after winning ACC player of the year last season.
Hidalgo, who is of Puerto Rican descent, headlines our Top 10 Latinas to Watch in women’s college basketball.
No. 1 Hannah Hidalgo, G, Notre Dame
Through her first four games, the 5-foot-6 guard is averaging 28.8 points, 6.5 rebounds. She already has 26 steals while shooting 85.2 percent from the free throw line.
Hannah Hidalgo set Notre Dame’s single-season scoring record last season with 23.8 points per game, a year that included a 34-point performance at Louisville, a near triple-double against UConn and multiple 30-point outings. As a freshman, she averaged 22.6 points and 4.6 steals per game.
Hidalgo reached 1,000 career points in only 44 games and recorded the highest triple-double by a true freshman in program history.
No. 2 Aaliyah Chavez, G, Oklahoma
Aaliyah Chavez, who is Mexican American, arrived in Norman as one of the most decorated recruits in recent history. Widely regarded as the No. 1 player in the 2025 class, she earned both the Gatorade National Player of the Year and the Naismith National Player of the Year awards.
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Through her first five games, the freshman guard is averaging 18.4 points and shooting 39.5 percent from beyond the arc. She scored a season-high 29 points against Kansas City, going 9-for-13 from the field and making seven three-pointers.
In her collegiate debut against Belmont, she filled the stat sheet with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals while playing a season-high 37 minutes.
Chavez earned her first SEC Freshman of the Week honor this week. She averaged 21.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game last week to earn her Freshman of the Week honor.
No. 3 Gabriela Jaquez, G, UCLA
Jaquez has brought consistency and versatility to UCLA in her senior year. Through her first four starts, she is averaging 15.3 points and 8.3 rebounds while shooting 54.8 percent from the field and 47.4 percent from 3-point range.
She scored a season-high 21 points against UC Santa Barbara and opened the year with 11 rebounds against San Diego State.
Jaquez, the younger sister of UCLA great and Miami Heat star Jaime Jaquez, is also perfect at the free-throw line, going 6-for-6.
The Mexican national team player helped lead UCLA to a Final Four appearance last season. She started 33 of her 36 games last season. Jaquez also posted career bests by shooting 52.3 percent from the floor and 34.8 percent from beyond the arc.
No. 4 Briana Peguero, G, Houston
Peguero is off to a strong start in her return to her hometown, totaling 34 points, 11 assists and 13 steals through her first four games. The 5-foot-7 guard opened the season with 14 points and six steals against UT Arlington and is shooting 71.4 percent from the free throw line.
She joined Houston after a season at Troy, where she earned WNIT All-Tournament Team honors and averaged 10.6 points while shooting 35.2 percent from 3-point range and 86.4 percent at the line across 38 games.
Peguero previously played her junior year at Mercer and was an NJCAA All-American during her two seasons at Trinity Valley.
No. 5 Victoria Flores, G, Rice
Flores, a 5-foot-7 guard from Dallas, is in her second year with the Rice Owls after transferring from TCU following the 2023-24 season.
In her first season with Rice, she averaged 9.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.2 steals over 34 games, including 21 starts. She led the Owls in assists with 112 and in free throws made with 84.
Flores ranked second on the team in steals with 40, earning a spot on the 2024-25 AAC All-Newcomer Team.
Through her first four games of the 2025-26 season, Flores is averaging 12.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 7 assists. She posted a season-high 16 points and went 16-for-16 at the free-throw line at Houston on Nov. 11.
No. 6 Aubrey Galvan, G, Vanderbilt
Galvan is already showing poise beyond her years as Vanderbilt’s freshman point guard. She is averaging 12 points, six rebounds and six assists per game while adding six steals and 11 turnovers in her first three starts.
Her playmaking has helped Vanderbilt to a 3–0 start. As a two-time Adidas All-American and MaxPreps Illinois Player of the Year, the 5-foot-6 guard ranks among the top 20 all-time in Illinois for three-point field goals made with 292 and for steals with 539.
At Wilmette Loyola Academy, she set the single-season scoring record with 734 points and made 111 three-pointers, finishing her prep career with 2,132 total points.
No. 7 Emely Rodriguez, G, Iowa
Rodriguez joins Iowa after transferring from UCF. During her freshman season with the Knights, she scored 297 points despite missing five games with an injury.
The 6-foot guard from La Romana, Dominican Republic, led the team in free-throw percentage at 75.3 percent. She averaged 11.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
Rodriguez has 36 steals and earned Big 12 All-Freshman Team honors. Through her first four games with the Hawkeyes, Rodriguez is averaging 9.8 points and has nine assists while shooting 51.7 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free-throw line.
She opened the season with 13 points against Southern and has scored at least nine points in three of her four games.
No. 8 Bella Hines, G, LSU
Hines, a 5-foot-10 freshman guard, joined LSU as part of the Tigers’ No. 1 recruiting class. In high school, she averaged 28.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game, including a junior season in which she broke the Grind Session single-game scoring record with 53 points.
Last year she was the only high school basketball player (girl or boy) with an NIL deal with Nike’s Jordan Brand.
She was named New Mexico Player of the Year two consecutive seasons. Over 84 varsity appearances, she scored 3,170 points.
As a freshman at LSU, Hines is averaging 6.8 points per game through her first five contests, highlighted by a 14-point outing against Southeastern Louisiana. She is shooting 65 percent from the field and 58.3 percent from three-point range.
No. 9 Aalyah Del Rosario, C, Vanderbilt
Del Rosario, a 6-foot-6 center from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, transferred to Vanderbilt after two seasons at LSU. Last year, she played in 28 games, including LSU’s NCAA Tournament first-round win over San Diego State, and contributed during the Tigers’ run to the Elite Eight.
A former five-star recruit and the top post player in her class, Del Rosario won back-to-back state titles at The Webb School and earned a gold medal with the Dominican Republic at the 2022 FIBA U18 World Cup.
Through her first three games at Vanderbilt this season, Del Rosario is averaging 5.6 points and 2.9 rebounds in 16.1 minutes per game, shooting 56 percent from the field while adding three blocks and two steals.
No. 10 Angelica Velez, G, Syracuse
The 5-foot-7 guard is averaging 4.5 points, 5 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.7 steals through her first three games while shooting 41.2 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range. She posted a season-high 10 points and three steals against Canisius.
Velez began her college career at LSU, appearing in 23 games as a freshman and recording 13 assists and four steals, including a career-high five assists against McNeese.
Last season at Syracuse, she played in 26 games, highlighted by an eight-point, eight-rebound performance against Florida State.
A native of the Bronx, New York, Velez played at The Webb School in Tennessee, where she won back-to-back state championships in her junior and senior years, was named the 2023 Division II-A Miss Tennessee Basketball Player of the Year.
Perla Paredes Hernández
Contributor
Perla Paredes Hernández, a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, worked at The Daily Texan for two years, covering women’s golf, men’s tennis, football, soccer, volleyball and beach volleyball. She served as social media coordinator for Texas Student Television’s sports department, where she hosted shows, provided analysis across nearly every Texas sport, and took on off-camera roles such as stage manager and assistant director.
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