Lace up your high-tops, practice your lay-ups and work that backboard. March marks the beginning of the biggest women and men’s college basketball tournament in the United States, March Madness.  Die-hards will place bets on who will be the best men and women’s collegiate teams while smack talking friends and coworkers about who are the best players. This week, at least on the women’s side, the best female basketball player may have been decided-and she’s not even IN college. She’s Benton Harbor high school student Kysre Gondrezick.

Last night Gondrezick scored 72 points in single game, yes 72 points in a game, smashing Michigan High School Athletic Association’s previous record of 63 points held by Debra Walker since 1979. In the game, she scored 72 of her team’s 80 points, including a 3 to send it into overtime and a basket to win it in the second overtime. 

This is no fluke. Gondrezick’s previous game high scoring 54. She is averaging over 40 points, 5 assists and 4 steals a game in addition to almost 9 rebounds. That unbelievable tally that puts her head and shoulders above her female (and MALE) peers has her leading the state of Michigan’s Miss Basketball Watch List (a designation given to the top player in the state each year),  The sheer will of Gondrezick leading her team to victory, after a grueling game that went into double overtime, is what makes Gondrezick a leader. All too often, girls worldwide are discouraged from participating in sports. It is taboo, it is unfeminine-the list of demotivating descriptors is often endless.

HISTORICAL COMPARISON: In the United States, women were discouraged from running long distances because it would damage their uterus. When Kathrine (Kathy) Switzer became the first woman to run in the Boston Marathon in 1967, she was almost forcibly removed from the race. It would be another five years until women could compete.  

Gondrezick carries the torch of the many female, professional athletes before her. Six women have scored over 100 points in a high school basketball game, but all of those have come in blowouts not in heated competitions.

If standing out among her female peers wasn’t enough, let’s compare her to a legendary male basketball player: Wilt Chamberlin. Wilt had a 100 point game in 1962, in what is considered by many to be one of the most amazing feats in professional sports. Wilt Chamberlin of the Philadelphia Warriors’ 100 point game in 1962.

Wilt’s 100 point game: 
# of three pointers: 0 (3 pointers were not introduced until)
Length of game:  48 minutes (although claims that the game was over at 47 minutes and 14 seconds once Chamberlin hit the 100 point mark)
Personal best before 100 point game: 50 points

# of three pointers: 10
Length of game: 48 minutes (32 minutes + 16 minutes of double overtime)
Personal best before 72 point game:  54 points

Kyrse’s coming for you Wilt:

While the numbers are still in Chamberlin’s favor, Gondrezick isn’t too far behind.  And remember, her game was a heavily contested game whereas Wilt’s game was a blowout. Oh, and he was a professional not a kid (which despite her grown up game, teenage Kyrse can still be considered a kid) 

She’s heading to the University of Michigan next year to play division one basketball, the highest ranking for collegiate sports . This soon to be Wolverine,  should only improve in her four years at University, and will continue to be an inspiration for young women on and off the court. She is proof of the power and awesomeness in the women around all of us each day. 

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Demand Equity

High School Girl Scores Record 72 Points In One Basketball Game

By Katherine Curtiss