Column: Leaonna Odom, Valerie Higgins are a formidable duo on Chaminade girls’ basketball team

Leaonna Odom of West Hills Chaminade High would wake up at 4:30 a.m. several days a week during the summer and head to a fitness center to practice her shooting.

“There’s really no one there,” she said. “It’s the fun part because I can scream, I can do whatever I want. I can laugh, I can say things I wouldn’t normally say with a lot of people around. I just have fun. It feels like my court.”

For years, Odom’s high school teammate, Valerie Higgins, has been destined to play college basketball. Her father, Keith, and mother, Sherry, each played at Cal State Northridge. Since she was 6, she has trained to become a top player.

“He always had that way to push me,” Higgins said of her father. “He always saw the best in me and brought out the best in me when we were training.”

Together, the 6-foot-2 Odom, bound for Duke, and the 6-foot Higgins, bound for USC, will form a girls’ basketball duo that will be hard to duplicate when the season begins next week.

“They’re both gym rats,” Coach Kelli DiMuro said. “They’re both self-motivated.”

And they’re both determined to help Chaminade earn a trip in March to the state championships in Sacramento. It’s the one goal that eluded the Eagles last season when they won the Southern Section Open Division championship but lost in the state regionals.

Odom averaged 17.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Higgins, one of the top defensive players in Southern California because of her ability to create turnovers, averaged 14.9 points and 9.8 rebounds. She will add point guard duties to her responsibilities this season.

There will be other standout players in Southern California. Jasmine Jones, a 5-11 junior, has transferred from West Torrance to Long Beach Poly after being the Southern Section Division 1A player of the year.

Kayla Washington, a 6-foot senior from Cajon, averaged 28.1 points last season and has signed with Washington State. Amber Melgoza, a 5-10 guard from Santa Barbara, returns after averaging 33.5 points as a junior. She signed with Washington.

Palisades has standout junior guard Chelsey Gipson, who learned plenty of tips when she was a freshman playing alongside UCLA’s Jordin Canada at L.A. Windward. Vista Murrieta has California-bound Jaelyn Brown, who averaged 17.9 points.

Santa Ana Mater Dei has 6-4 UCLA-bound Allyson Rosenblum. There’s also going to be a talented group of newcomers. Palisades believes it has one of the best in freshman point guard Kayla Williams.

As for top teams, Chaminade figures to be challenged in the Southern Section by Long Beach Poly, Mater Dei and Cajon. Palisades is the team to beat in the City Section.

Now it’s going to be up to Odom and Higgins to use their talent and determination to lead the Eagles. That means Odom isn’t going to be getting much sleep.

“A lot of people say when you’re up and others are sleeping, you have the advantage,” she said. “I try to take that into consideration.”

Added Higgins: “We’re hungry. That drive — we really have it.”