Three big shots at smaller schools named all-state

Ursuline's Tyra Grant, Girard's Cachet Murray and Lowellville's Amanda Nero are honored.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Ursuline High's Tyra Grant, Girard's Cachet Murray and Lowellville's Amanda Nero received first-team honors when the 2004-05 Associated Press girls All-Ohio basketball teams for Divisions III and IV were announced Tuesday.
Grant, a 5-foot-11-inch junior, averaged 26.4 points in leading the Irish to the Steel Valley Conference title and a Div. III regional appearance.
Murray, who will run track next fall at the University of Mississippi, is a 5-8 senior who averaged 25.1 points.
Nero, a 5-8 senior, led the Rockets to their first regional final after averaging 23.1 points.
Players of the year
Xenia Christian's Megan Frazee, playing her first year of interscholastic basketball, is the Div. IV player of the year.
Frazee, a 6-foot-2 senior, is a triplet who was homeschooled along with her sisters until enrolling at Xenia Christian this year. Active in AAU ball in the summer, Frazee averaged 32.7 points and 16.9 rebounds a game and has led her school to this weekend's state tournament at St. John Arena.
In Div. III, the players of the year were Zanesville West Muskingum's Jessica McKenzie and Alyssa Hammond of state poll champion Oak Hill.
Xenia Christian (23-1) meets Ottoville (22-3) in Thursday night's second Div. IV semifinal. Top-ranked Berlin Hiland (26-0) takes on Mansfield St. Peter's (20-5) in the earlier game, with the winners squaring off Saturday afternoon for the title.
Bound for Liberty
Frazee has accepted a scholarship offer to Liberty University.
She is joined on the first team by Launa Hochstetler of Berlin Hiland (5-7, senior, 13.9 points a game), and her adversary in the semifinals, St. Peter's Gretchen Polinski (6-1, sr., 18.5).
Also on the team are Maria Moeller of Maria Stein Marion Local (5-7, jr., 18.8); Cardington Lincoln's Jackie Mories (5-11, sr., 20.4); and Jennifer Grandy of Glouster Trimble (5-5, jr., 30.7).
The Div. IV coaches of the year are Ron Carter, who led Thompson Ledgemont to a 17-6 record for the program's most wins in 17 years, and Hiland's Dave Schlabach.
While piling up an unbeaten season and a No. 1 ranking, Schlabach ran his winning percentage to better than .850 while garnering Hiland's fifth regional title in his tenure.
In Div. III, McKenzie is a 6-foot senior who averaged 25.8 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals a game for West Muskingum, which is coached by the legendary Jack Van Reeth.
Van Reeth, who has won more than 300 games as both a boys and a girls coach, led West Muskingum to a 17-3 mark and a trip to St. John Arena.
Sharing the player of the year award with McKenzie was Hammond, a 6-0 senior who scored 28 points a game to go with 8 rebounds for an Oak Hill team that went 20-0 in the regular season and was ranked No. 1 in the final poll.
The other Div. III coaches of the year were Rick Schwiebert of Hamler Patrick Henry (19-1 regular-season and a trip to the state semis), and Melvin Burke Sr. of Cleveland Central Catholic (No. 2 in the poll and 19-1 in the regular season).
Joining the co-players of the year on the first-team all-state list were: Lauren Prochaska of Plain City Jonathan Alder (5-11, soph., 24.3); Regina's Carla Jacobs (5-7, jr. 18.5); Jantel Lavender of Cleveland Central Catholic (6-4, soph., 22); Micki Kuns of Castalia Margaretta (5-11, jr., 17.6); Danielle Denlinger of Casstown Miami East (6-0, sr., 17.1); and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Whitney Dubbs (5-10, sr., 18.6).
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