Xcellent 25 National Rankings present by the Army National GuardA look at the country's top girls basketball teams. COLUMBUS, Ohio – Becoming the first three-time recipient of the Ohio Ms. Basketball award, Canton McKinley High School senior Kierstan Bell has joined LeBron James as the only three-time winners of Ohio’s top high school basketball award.
A statewide media panel from the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association made the selection Thursday.
James was Ohio’s Mr. Basketball from 2001-03 for Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary.
Bell led McKinley to a 25-2 record this season and the regional championship game by averaging 27.0 points, 7.9 rebounds, 4.4 blocks, 3.8 steals and 3.0 assists. She finished her career with 2,833 points, passing Ohio legends Katie Smith and Semeka Randall on the state’s career scoring list in recent weeks. Bell’s point total is fourth in OHSAA history. Canton McKinley went 93-14 with three district titles and one regional title with Bell.
Other finalists for the Ms. Basketball Award included Constance Chaplin from Euclid, Jacy Sheldon from Dublin Coffman, Jordan Horston from Columbus Africentric, Sammie Puisis from Mason, Lauren Flannery from Hannibal River, Peyton Scott from Lynchburg Clay and Zia Cooke, Toledo Rogers.
Ring a Bell? McKinley standout makes history with third Ms. Basketball award
By Joe Scalzo
The Canton Repository
GateHouse Media Ohio
CANTON – Like a lot of high school seniors, Kierstan Bell is looking forward to college because of the independence it will provide.
One difference. Hers will come on the court.
“No more box-and-one,” the Ohio State recruit said, laughing. “They’ll have to play man-to-man.”
During Bell’s four-year term at McKinley, it often looked like she was being defended by the Secret Service. One person in front, one in back and several others watching her out of the corners of their eyes.
Didn’t matter. Thanks to a rare combination of size (6-foot-1), skill and athleticism, Bell put together one of the most dominant résumés in Ohio history, finishing as the state’s fourth-leading scorer while going 93-14 with three district titles and one regional title.
On Thursday, she did something that no other girl in Ohio history has done — win Ms. Basketball for a third time.
“I give it all to God,” said Bell, a McDonald's All-American and the nation's sixth-rated recruit in the Class of 2019. “God put me on this earth for a reason. He gave me a good talent and a gift, so I owe it back. I put it all on the floor and tried to use that gift.”
Bell averaged 27.0 points, 7.9 rebounds, 4.4 blocks, 3.8 steals and 3.0 assists this season for the Bulldogs (25-2), who shared the Federal League title with state semifinalist Canton GlenOak and who lost on a last-second shot to Toledo Notre Dame Academy in the Division I regional final. She finished her career with 2,833 points, passing Ohio legends Katie Smith and Semeka Randall on the state’s career scoring list in recent weeks.
Randall is one of five players to win Ms. Basketball twice, joining Garfield Heights Trinity’s Vonda Ward (1990-91), Mason’s Michelle Munoz (2000-01) and McKinley’s Ameryst Alston (2011-12).
Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s LeBron James is the only player to win Ohio’s Mr. Basketball three times.
“She’s the most physically dominant player I’ve ever seen at the high school level,” said Massillon Jackson coach Anthony Butch, who went 1-8 against Bell despite having Big Ten Freshman of the Year Taylor Mikesell of Maryland for seven of those games. “We couldn’t defend her with one player. Immediately, your game plan shifts when you’re playing against her because you have to keep two girls on her at all times.”
Flanked by a pair of Division I recruits in sophomore guards Nakayah Terrell and Kyla Foster, Bell led the Bulldogs to a 21-1 record during the regular season. She had maybe her finest game of the season in the overtime loss to GlenOak on Jan. 12, scoring 39 points with nine rebounds, five steals and five blocks, including one on a game-winning 3-point attempt at the end of regulation.
She had 25 points to help the Bulldogs avenge last year's district championship game loss to Wadsworth, pulling away for a 54-32 victory that was essentially over at halftime.
She laughed off chants of "Overrated!" from the Avon Lake student section in the regional semifinals, scoring 20 points in the first half alone of a 60-33 victory.
And in a defensive-minded regional final loss to Notre Dame Academy, Bell scored 17 of McKinley's 38 points to go with five blocks, including two in the final 90 seconds.
"I've just been replaying that game in my head," Bell said. "Asking what I could have done better? What could I have changed?
"Our main focus was on winning a state championship."
Her high school career may not have finished in Columbus, but her college career will continue there.
Big Ten, beware.
"It was a journey and it was fun," she said of the past four seasons at McKinley. "I'm sure I'll come back 10, 12, 13 years later and say, 'Dang, I really set the gold standard for other kids to beat.' Maybe someday they will."
She laughed, then added, "Maybe not too soon, though. Leave it up a little bit longer."
Past Ohio Ms. Basketball Ohio winners2019 – Kierstan Bell, Canton McKinley, junior
2018 – Kierstan Bell, Canton McKinley, junior
2017 – Kierstan Bell, Canton McKinley, sophomore
2016 – Jensen Caretti, Hannibal River, senior
2015 – Hallie Thome, Chagrin Falls, senior
2014 – Kelsey Mitchell, Cin. Princeton, senior
2013 – Ashley Morrissette, Twinsburg, senior
2012 – Ameryst Alston, Canton McKinley, senior
2011 – Ameryst Alston, Canton McKinley, junior
2010 – Natasha Howard, Tol. Waite, senior
2009 – Kendall Hackney, Cin. Mount Notre Dame, senior
2008 – Amber Gray, West Chester Lakota West, senior
2007 – Jantel Lavender, Cleveland Central Catholic, senior
2006 – Tyra Grant, Youngstown Ursuline, senior
2005 – Maria Getty, Dayton Chaminade-Julienne, senior
2004 – Mel Thomas, Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame, senior
2003 – Brittany Hunter, Columbus Brookhaven, senior
2002 – Barbara Turner, Cleveland East Tech, senior
2001 – Michelle Munoz, Mason, senior
2000 – Michelle Munoz, Mason, junior
1999 – (TIE) Kaayla Chones, Eastlake North, senior; LaToya Turner, Pickerington, senior
1998 – Tamika Williams, Dayton Chaminade-Julienne, senior
1997 – Semeka Randall, Garfield Hts. Trinity, senior
1996 – Semeka Randall, Garfield Hts. Trinity, junior
1995 – Beth Ostendorf, Pickerington, senior
1994 – Na'Sheema Hillmon, Garfield Hts. Trinity, senior
1993 – Marlene Stollings, Beaver Eastern, senior
1992 – Katie Smith, Logan, senior
1991 – Vonda Ward, Garfield Hts. Trinity, senior
1990 – Vonda Ward, Garfield Hts. Trinity, junior
1989 – Carol Madsen, Reading, senior
1988 – Janet Haneberg, Cincinnati Seton, senior
Notable
Won as junior and also two-time winner (5): Vonda Ward, Garfield Heights. Trinity (1990, 1991); Semeka Randall, Garfield Heights Trinity (1996, 1997); Michelle Munoz, Mason (2000, 2001), Ameryst Alston, Canton McKinley (2011, 2012), Kierstan Bell, Canton McKinley (2017, 2018)
Won as sophomore (1): Kierstan Bell, Canton McKinley (2017)
Co-winners (1): 1999 - Kaayla Chones, Eastlake North and LaToya Turner, Pickerington
