Editor’s note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports. Today’s list: The top 10 girls high school basketball players from Tucson:
On April 21, 1983, Santa Rita point guard Paula Pyers scored 50 points against Pueblo. The story was reported on page G-4 of the Star’s sports section, in paragraph eight of the girls basketball roundup.
It was the first time a Tucson girls basketball player scored 50 points and remains the only time a player from the state’s highest classification reached 50. (The only other Tucsonan to score 50 was Pueblo’s Angela Lopez, with 52, in a 2008 game against Santa Rita.)
Pyers accepted a scholarship to USC a week later. She chose the Trojans over Army, ASU and UNLV. Arizona did not offer her a scholarship. Four years later, when USC played at McKale Center, Pyers scored 22 points for the Trojans on a day Arizona’s team was coached by an interim coach, June Olkowski.
Such were the early years of girls basketball in Tucson and elsewhere. It wasn’t exactly a smooth operation, or a high-profile sport, but Pyers was ahead of her time.
She led the Eagles, 28-0, to the 1984 state championship. Three times that season she scored 42 points in a game.
She left Santa Rita with 2,082 points, the first Arizonan to crack the 2,000-point barrier. It remains 18th on the state’s scoring chart.
She is our choice as the No. 1 player in Tucson girls basketball history, a pioneer of sorts. The Top 10 list is full of top contenders.
1. Paula Pyers, Santa Rita, 1984. She is now the senior director of Apple’s supply chain and social responsibility, based in San Francisco.
2. Julie Brase, Catalina Foothills, 1998. Few players in the state can match Brase’s Foothills career. She scored a state-record 2,913 points, led the Falcons to the 1997 state championship with a 31-2 record. She scored a career-high 47 points and in the ’97 state tournament scored 137 points in four games. Lute Olson’s granddaughter went on to play regularly at Arizona and is now a coach for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury.
3. Sybil Dosty, Salpointe Catholic, 2004. Arizona’s Gatorade Player of the Year as a Salpointe senior, who played collegiately at Tennessee and ASU, blocked 525 shots, a state record. She led the Lancers to the 2003 state championship game and the 2004 semifinals. She is now an assistant coach at Nevada.
4. Catherria Turner, Amphitheater, 2001. Not only did Turner score 47 points in a game against Sabino, she averaged a triple-double as a Panther senior: 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 steals. She played at Oregon and Oklahoma State.
5. Abyee Maracigan, Flowing Wells, 2008. The Caballeros went 33-1 and won the state title as Maracigan, a point guard, ran the show. She later led Pima College to a No. 3 finish in the NJCAA and played at Idaho State.
6. Sydni Stallworth, Palo Verde, 2015. Averaging 25.1 points as a Titan senior, Stallworth had a state-high 161 steals. She then became a first-team NJCAA All-American in 2016 and 2017 at Pima College.
7. Christine Clark, Tucson, 2010. Scoring 1,342 points for Badger teams that went 24-3, 23-4 and 22-6, Clark was the consummate team player, a guard who averaged 15.2 points and went on to become an All-Ivy League standout at Harvard.
8. Nicole Smith, Canyon del Oro, 1987. The lead player for coach Dan Huff’s 28-0 state championship team, Smith averaged 19.7 points and was Arizona’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
9. Vickie Patton, Marana, 1982. Coach Mike Dyer’s team won three state titles in the 1980s, and Patton, a hard-working point guard, led the charge. She averaged 20.7 as a senior as the Tigers went 24-1 to win it all.
10. Michelle Vielledent, Sahuaro, 1993. Coach Jim Scott’s Cougars went 30-1 to win the 1998 state title with a balanced team that shared the ball. His ’93 state title team was similarly built, but Vielledent rose to the top, twice the city’s Player of the Year, averaging 17 points and scoring 1,501 points in her career.
Waiting list: Olivia Snyder of Green Fields Country Day School completed her career with 2,382 points for the Class 1A school, averaging 30.4 in 2013.
