Kysre Gondrezick
Benton Harbor’s Kysre Gondrezick got the girls basketball state tournament started with a bang Monday night when she scored a state-record 72 points in an 80-78 double-overtime Class B district victory over Buchanan.
The 5-foot-9 senior guard, who signed with Michigan, broke the record of 63 points set by Detroit Mumford’s Debra Walker in 1979.
She scored 49 of her team’s 51 points after halftime, including all 23 points in the overtimes.
Gondrezick is on pace to become the first girl in state history to average 40 points per game for a season. The Miss Basketball finalist is now averaging 41.5 points. She also has more than 2,700 career points and will finish No. 2 on the all-time scoring list, behind Central Lake’s Jasmine Hines (3,034 points), now a senior at Michigan State.
Gondrezick said she had no idea she had scored so many points until she was told in the locker room.
“I’m kind of sitting here right now like: ‘Did I really have 72? Are you sure I didn’t have 50?’” she told the Free Press after the game.
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Buchanan led by five and had the ball with 17 seconds left in the first overtime but threw away an inbounds pass. Gondrezick hit a three-pointer, and after a Buchanan player made one free throw, Gondrezick hit another three to force a second overtime.
She won the game with a basket with 5 seconds left.
“I wasn’t thinking about the shots that I made,” Gondrezick said. “All I knew is that I had to keep on making them. Once I made one shot, I kept thinking: ‘Next play, next play.’ I wasn’t sitting there reflecting on all the great things that I did. It was just a matter of making sure I kept my composure and didn’t make valuable mistakes down the stretch.”
According to Jack Walkden of the South Bend Tribune, Gondrezick hit 27 of 54 shots, including 10 of 27 from three-point range and 8 of 12 from the free throw line.
“My adrenaline and momentum kept us going,” she said. “We were rallying from behind and some of our key starters fouled out and I knew I had to take matters into my own hands, and I think my teammates did an amazing job getting open shots for me tonight. I think we just played well as a team, and it showed.”
The victory improved Benton Harbor to 9-10 and sends the Tigers into Wednesday’s district semifinal against 1-19 Dowagiac.
“I’m not going to overlook them with the record they have,” Gondrezick said. “I’ll be looking forward to having just a little break, a little breather and looking forward to the district championship. But hey, game in and game out, it’s anybody’s ball game when March happens.”
Monday, Feb. 29 high school sports results
Contact Mick McCabe: 313-223-4744 or mmccabe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1.