NOTEBOOK | From Value City Arena

Milestones: Irish senior Tyra Grant, who on Wednesday became the first Mahoning Valley player to win Ms. Basketball, finished her career with an area-best 2,292 points, which is 12th all-time among girls in Ohio. Three other area players have scored more than 2,000: Boardman's Amber Bland (2,190), Canfield's Jenny Kulics (2,114) and Ursuline's Courtney Davidson (2,066). Grant also set two Division III state championship game records. Her 30 points broke Doylestown Chippewa's Charbea Haller's record of 29, which she scored in 1994 against Frankfort Adena. The overall state tournament record is 43, set by Fort Recovery's Lynn Bihn in the 1991 Div. IV state final against McDonald. Grant's five 3-pointers tied two others for the Div. III state mark (Wauseon's Katie Griggs in 1997 and Chillicothe Unioto's Natalie Hill in 1989).
Moving on: Grant will play basketball at Penn State next season. She's the second area player to earn a scholarship from Penn State in the past three years. Bland played her freshman year with the Nittany Lions before transferring to North Carolina A & amp;T last summer. "Tyra's an impact player," Ursuline coach Sean Durkin said. "I'm sure [Penn State coach Rene] Portland likes what she sees. I think she's going to go in there and be a force as a freshman."
Making a point: The Irish entered Saturday's state final averaging close to 60 points per game. Only five teams held them to 50 points or fewer this season: Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit (50), New Castle (38), Pittsburgh Oakland Catholic (49), Wheeling (W.Va.) Mount de Chantal (39) and Sugarcreek Garaway (39). The Irish lost four of those games, beating Garaway 39-31 in Thursday's state semifinal.
Irish players: Seniors Tyra Grant, Tiffani Miller, Vannessa Dickson and Mariah Snyder and junior Danielle Crafter started for the Irish. Senior Jenna Klempay, juniors Mary Hendricks and Megan Saccomen and sophomores Brittany Armour and T'Maira Gandy also saw time in Saturday's game. Other players included seniors Alexandra Portwood and Christina Danko and sophomores Katelyn Tondo-Steele, Mary Alexander and Anna Santisi.
Joe Scalzo