She doesn’t bring up winning state. She doesn’t even bring up having her team currently undefeated. No, instead she brings up The Big Four, my words not hers.

There are so many ways to go when you start a basketball conversation with Lincoln Christian senior superstar (she’ll blush at that, guaranteed) Kena Ailes. But instead of talking about herself she talks about her buddies, her basketball friends, her teammates.

You know, the girls who won state last year and are also currently unbeaten this time around.

“When it comes to basketball it is obviously super helpful to have that kind of experience on our team. We have played a lot of big games and been in big moments, so we know how to handle being in situations like that,” says Kena, who is a 6-foot-tall post player supreme. “As senior I really value the friendships I have made in basketball, and I think about it more than I used to, probably because I am a senior.”

And to that opposing teams say hallelujah, as there’s basically no stopping Kena on the basketball court. Hardly any containing her, either.

“Kena is a gifted scorer I think she has only had maybe a few games where she hasn’t scored in double digits in her career,” says Lincoln Christian head coach Scott Klein. And she’s got the stats to prove it, averaging 17 points and 12 rebounds per game over the past three seasons. And more bad news for opposing defenses. “Kena has worked real hard and has improved her three-point field goal shooting to over 40% this year, which makes it even harder to guard her.”

Lovely.

Kena comes from a basketball playing family that includes her two older sisters, Makylee and Ashlynn, both of whom played basketball at Lincoln Christian. Naturally, they both had advice for lil’ sis.

“I always wanted to follow in their footsteps and we have always been competitive but they always have my back,” says Kena. “I think the way each of us kind of complements the others, we make a good team, but growing up it drove me, watching them play in high school. I wanted to be like them.”

Driven. It’s a word that comes up more than occasionally when discussing Kena’s approach to the game of basketball. And to life, actually.

“Kena is a joy to be around and coach. She is always smiling, upbeat and her love for Christ is just amazing,” adds Coach Klein. “But when it’s game day she is a fierce competitor who hates to lose. It’s another reason I have just loved coaching her all four years of her high school career.”

But not the only one. Coach Klein also praises Kena for her senior leadership ability on a team that includes just two seniors on the roster. “She is our most vocal player on the team on both ends of the floor, and she has been amazing for younger players.”

Born in Lincoln, Kena enjoys the out of doors or getting together with friends to watch movies, maybe cruise the city, see what’s up. She quickly tells you she loves food, Italian being her favorite kind, especially it’s fettuccine Alfredo, and country music is her jam with Jason Aldean her favorite performer. She’s not much for movies when it’s just her but she does like the TV series All-American and Friends. “Friends is a classic,” she says rightly.

Brilliant in the classroom, sporting a 4.0 GPA just like her sisters, and membership in the National Honor Society, her favorite class is Math, and she enjoys her volunteer time as part of National Honor Society. She’s going to attend college at Grand Canyon (Ariz.) University - we Kearney State guys from the ‘70s remember that name, ugh, look it up - just like her sisters did. She’s leaning toward studying in the medical field.

Kena is in the final weeks of her historic career and she takes special joy in being able to share it with the other members of the Big Four, who have played all their sports together, won a lot together, and tells you it will be hard not having them all close at hand following their high school graduation. As a group they will leave quite a legacy at Lincoln Christian, none more so than Kena.

“When she is done next month Kena will leave our program as number two all-time scorer and number one all-time leading rebounder. That tells you what a complete player she is,” praises Coach Klein. “There have been some really good players and teams come through LCS over last 25 years and she will go down as one of the best especially if we can win another state title, since our program has never won state titles back-to-back.”

Yeah, about that. There’s always gotta be a first time for about everything, right?

“We want to win another state championship, that’s the goal,” says Kena. “But one person can’t win state by themselves and I would like to have our team known for never giving up, and pushing past all the challenges to be the last team standing.”