Greatest girls high school basketball player from each decade

You don't have to score over 100 points in a game to be a member of this exclusive club, but it sure does help.

Top Girls High School Players by decade

1900s
Mary Plummer, Los Angeles, 1905
Los Angeles had one of the top teams in Southern California in the early part of the century and Plummer was the team's leading scorer. She is deemed by Cal-Hi Sports as the state's top player for 1904 and 1905. A year after graduating from Los Angeles High, she was named the coach of the girls team the following season.

1910s
Kathleen McGeehan, Lowell (San Francisco), 1914
Lowell had the best team in San Francisco during the mid-1910s, winning at least 27 in a row over two years, including wins over the Stanford and California at Berkeley college teams. McGeehan was considered the top player on that team and is named the state Player of the Year by Cal-HI Sports.

1920s
Marie Boyd, Lonaconing (Md.), 1924
Lonaconing was one of the top teams on the East Coast in the 1920s due in large part to the play of Boyd. At one point, Lonaconing went over four years without a loss, racking up over 56 wins in a row. On Feb. 25, 1924, Boyd set a national record that has never been equaled when she scored 156 points in a win over Ursuline. Since teams used the center jump after every made basket, Lonaconing used a strategy in which the center tapped the ball to a player on the wing, who quickly passed to Boyd, who put the ball in the basket — a total of 77 times in a game. Although offered the opportunity to play professional basketball, Boyd chose to enter the education field and became a teacher.

1930s
Babe Didrikson, Beaumont Central (Texas), 1930
Beaumont was undefeated while Didrikson, one of the greatest female athletes in history, played for the team. Didrikson eventually dropped out of Beaumont to play AAU basketball and once scored 106 points in a game when she was 17. She earned AAU All-American honors before focusing on a track and field career. She went on to win gold in the 80-meter hurdles and the javelin at the 1932 Olympics. She later embarked on a golf career that included 41 tour wins and three U.S. Women's Open wins. In 1999, the Associated Press voted her the Woman Athlete of the 20th Century.

1940s
Barbara Self, China (Texas), 1945
Self holds the 6-on-6 state record in Texas for most points in a season with 1,444. She finished her career in 1945 with 4,189 career points and at the time, no one was within 2,000 points of her record. She also finished her career as the all-time national scoring leader, breaking the old mark of 4,034 points by Louise Wilson of Humboldt (Tenn.). Her record lasted until 1955. China was a girls basketball sensation in the 1940s and Self was the team's top player. She scored 1,297 points in leading China to 71 straight wins heading into her senior year. China won 26 more games in 1945 before losing in the state tournament. With Self averaging over 35 points per game over a three-year span, China went 116-2 with 97 straight wins. Self was an All-State choice her senior season.

1950s
Nera White, Macon County (Lafayette, Tenn.), 1954
While White was all-area as a senior at Lafayette, she didn't reach her true potential until she began playing AAU basketball for Nashville Business College. At 6-foot-1, White is believed to be the first woman to dunk a basketball. She was named AAU All-American 15 years in a row and was the MVP of the AAU national tournament nine times. She also led the United States National Team to the World Championship in 1957 and was the tournament MVP. She is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

1960s
Denise Long, Union-Whitten (Iowa), 1969
After averaging 69.6 points per game her senior year, Long was actually drafted in the 13th round of the NBA draft by the San Francisco Warriors. She was featured in the New York Times, Sports Illustrated and on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. While Long never played for the Warriors (high school players were not allowed to be drafted back then), her selection showed how she dominated high school basketball. She scored 111 points in one game and led Union-Whitten to a state title her junior year. She finished her career as the nation's all-time leading scorer with 6,250 points.
1970s
Nancy Lieberman, Far Rockaway (N.Y.), 1976
Not even a high school senior when she tried out for the U.S. team that played in the Pan Am games in 1975, Lieberman went on to play on the Olympic team that took the silver medal in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. At Old Dominion, Lieberman led the team to two national championships, was named All-American three times and was the national player of the year twice. At the age of 39, she played in the first season of the WNBA. She also played for the Detroit Shock at the age of 50 in 2008.

1980s
Cheryl Miller, Poly (Riverside, Calif.), 1982
The national high school Player of the Year by Street & Smith magazine in 1981 and 1982, Miller once scored 105 points in a single game. She also set a California state record, according to Cal-Hi Sports, with 1,156 points in a single season and 3,405 points in her career. She played on the gold medal Olympic team in 1984 and set career scoring records at Southern California, where she led the Trojans to two NCAA titles and was twice named tournament MVP. She was also the college Player of the Year three times. Between college and high school, her teams won 144 games and lost just 24.

1990s
Lisa Leslie, Morningside (Inglewood, Calif.), 1990
Leslie cemented her legacy as one of the great all-time players when she scored 101 points in one half of play during her senior year. The opposing team did not come out to play in the second half. She twice led Morningside to state championships and was twice named state Player of the Year by Cal-HI Sports. In college at Southern California, she was All-American three times and was the national Player of the Year as a senior. She is one the WNBA's greatest players, winning MVP honors three times, being named All-WNBA first team eight times and making eight All-Star games. She has also won eight gold medals in international competition, including four Olympic Gold Medals.

2000s
Candace Parker, Naperville Central (Naperville, Ill.), 2004
After leading her team to back-to-back state titles, Parker was named USA Today Player of the Year twice and finished with 2,768 career points. In college at Tennessee, she was twice named national college Player of the Year after leading Tennessee to a pair of national championships. She is also known as the first female to dunk in a college game. In the WNBA, she is a five-time All-WNBA first team selection, a five-time all-star and a two-time league MVP. She has also won two Olympic gold medals.

2010s
Breanna Stewart, Cicero-North Syracuse (Cicero, N.Y.), 20012
One of the most decorated college players ever, Stewart led the Huskies to four NCAA championships, was named tournament Most Outstanding Player four times and was three times named the NCAA Consensus Player of the Year. In high school, Stewart was the Gatorade National Player of the Year and the MaxPreps National Player of the Year after leading Cicero-North Syracuse to back-to-back state titles. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 WNBA draft, Stewart was named the WNBA's MVP in 2018.

Note: Girls basketball played 6-on-6 until 1970 when the game was changed to 5-on-5 (not all states immediately changed over to 5-on-5 at that time, however). In 6-on-6, teams played three players on each side of halfcourt with the players unable to cross half court, thus creating a 3-on-3 situation. Limited dribbling was also part of the game for a significant period of time. Prior to 1914, the court was divided into three sections with only two players allowed per section.