IRVINE, Calif.—The first of what figures to be multiple encores for Crean Lutheran High School guard Kaiden Bailey is drawing rave reviews.
On the heels of a tremendous freshman season in which he captured the Empire League’s most valuable player award and established himself as one of the top boys’ basketball players in Orange County, Bailey is wowing onlookers once again.
Less than a week after surpassing the 1,000-point milestone in his still-budding career, Bailey poured in a personal-best 40 points Jan. 12 in an 89–39 victory over Valencia of Placentia.
Yes, the 6-foot-3 sophomore single-handedly outscored the visiting Tigers.
“Kaiden is a special talent, a special kid,” Crean Lutheran Coach Nate Klitzing told The Epoch Times. “He can score the ball and his IQ is really, really good. He’s a student of the game. He studies it. He watches film on himself and on the other teams. He just loves basketball. He knows that God’s given him an amazing gift to go play. He has several [NCAA] Division 1 offers already. The sky’s the limit for him.”
After having played the entire game to that point, Bailey exited with 6:08 remaining against Valencia. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Klitzing received word from the team’s scorer that Bailey was three points shy of 40.
“There are only so many times where a kid has an opportunity for something like that, so we thought we’d give it to him,” said Mr. Klitzing, who had a message for Bailey before sending him back out on the floor.
“He had one play. ‘You get one shot at this, Kaiden,’” Mr. Klitzing said.
Already with six 3-point field goals in the game, Bailey needed another to hit the 40-point mark. The Saints executed their offense to give him a good look from beyond the arc on the right side, and Bailey calmly nailed it.
“Coach was kind enough to put me back in the game,” Bailey told The Epoch Times. “He called up the play, we ran the play, and I got to my spot – a shot I’ve shot probably a thousand times. And praise be to God, it went in. I work on that shot with my dad. We work on it a lot, so it was almost like routine.”
Bailey, who is averaging 26 points a game this season, took a seat for good having gone 7-for-11 from 3-point range, with one of the misses a desperation heave nearly the length of the court at the first-quarter buzzer. He finished 13-for-20 from the field, buried seven of eight free throws, and dished out four assists.
It is that final statistic that is especially pertinent. After playing the two-guard spot last season, when his older brother, then-senior Kenneth Bailey, manned the point-guard position, the younger Bailey is now Crean Lutheran’s floor general.
“He’s a shot-maker, but he’s also really developing in his point-guard ability,” Mr. Klitzing said. “He’s continuing to make the right reads and the right plays. I try to make sure I compliment him when he does that because I know he can score. When he’s making us all better is when he’s at his best. Our whole team feels the energy off that, for sure.”
And make no mistake, there is plenty of talent around Bailey. “Battle-tested” by what their sixth-year coach calls “probably the toughest schedule” in school history, the Saints took a 10-8 overall record into a Jan. 15 Martin Luther King Day showcase game against Northern California power De La Salle in Concord.
Senior Troy Jenkins and sophomore Braeden Davidson join Bailey on the perimeter in Crean Lutheran’s starting lineup. Center Milanas Luksas, a 6-10 senior, and the sophomore tandem of 6-6 Jacob Majok and 6-8 Will Malual, meanwhile, form an enviable three-man rotation in the post.
“Jacob, Milonas, Will, our three main interior guys, they work hard at it,” Bailey said. “We put our faith in them to do the job on the inside. They show up and they do it every night.” Majok and Malual are in their first season in Irvine, having arrived from South Sudan. It is the continuation of a Saints “pipeline” that has previously brought students from the Central African nation.
“They’re just amazing kids,” Mr. Klitzing said. “They just want to come and work hard. They’ve acclimated really well to our school and our culture and everything.”
Three-time defending Empire League champions, the Saints are set for a huge week that includes a Jan. 17 visit from rival Cypress. The teams are tied atop the Empire standings at 3–0, with the Centurions looking to snap a 34-game Crean Lutheran winning streak in league play.
Just as the Saints have done the past three years, Cypress put together three successive 10–0 Empire League seasons from 2017–18 through 2019–20. Six of the Centurions’ seven league losses since then have been to Crean Lutheran.
“Every time we play Cypress, we’re going to have a really good game with them,” Mr. Klitzing said. “It’s one of those things where we’re going back and forth. We’ll have our hands full.”
The Saints’ busy itinerary calls for another league game Jan. 19, at Tustin, and then a Jan. 20 date against currently unbeaten Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks in the State Preview Classic at Colony High in Ontario.
Crean Lutheran will also face St. Mary’s of Phoenix, Arizona in the Jan. 26 Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana.
“It’s one of the things about our program that we want to keep striving to be in those events,” Mr. Klitzing said. “We’re blessed to be able to showcase some of our guys and try to go to battle with some of the best teams in the state and in the country.”
