The Texas Tech Lady Raiders have scored big in this season's recruiting battle by mining the fertile California hoops scene for the first time. In November, Head Coach Marsha Sharp convinced Judith Smith, a guard from Long Beach (Calif.) Poly to sign a letter of intent. She'll be joining fellow Golden Stater Erin Myrick in this year's class.

"Judith will bring a dimension to the perimeter which will be different from our current players," Sharp said in Novemeber. "She is a slasher who can get it to the rim and penetrate the defense. She played with Erin Myrick on one of the best AAU teams (the West Coast All-Stars) in the nation this last summer. They played around 60 games and lost only two or three games the entire summer."

A 5-9 guard, Smith averaged 20.1 points, 7.2 assists, 7.4 steals and 4.1 rebounds per game as a junior. Street & Smith's and Nike named her an all-American last season and the All-Star Girls Report has her ranked as the 29th-best guard in the country in this year's senior class. Among her other honors, Smith was named first team All-C.I.F. all-state, was named her league's Most Valuable Player the past two seasons, and was selected to the Long Beach Press-Telegram's first team Dream Team.

Smith made quite an impression at this summer's Nike camp this summer, according to oldgoldfreepress.com. Observers called her "one of the better guards in camp" and noted she was "an extremely fast player (who) did everything in high gear. Judith could either penetrate or pull up with equal success. She has a good handle and could maneuver through traffic easily. Defensively, Judith used her quickness to close down defenders and block shots."

No wonder Coach Sharp is so delighted with her new recruit--Smith looks like she's got all the tools to succeed on the next level.

Article written by Gball Associate Editor Jim Catalano.

Nominate someone you know as a High School Hero. Email us at info@gballmag.com.