Trib HSSN girls basketball player of the week for Jan. 12, 2025

By: Don Rebel
Sunday, January 12, 2025 | 6:16 PM

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Trib HSSN girls basketball player of the week – Iyanna Wade

School – Clairton

Class – Senior

Height – 5-foot-4

Position – Point guard

What coach says – “Iyanna has taken advantage of her athletic ability,” said Carlton Wade, Clairton coach and Iyanna’s father. “Against those two teams, she used her quickness and her speed to beat each team and get great shots for herself and to set up her teammates.”

“Her game slowed down. She is making a lot better decisions and making more 3-pointers this year.”

“She’s a winner to stay and put the team on her back,” Coach Wade said about the opportunities Wade had to finish her high school career elsewhere. “That alone speaks volumes on the person that she is. It was solely up to her to do that, and the Clairton faithful are very happy.”

“Her and Kam spoke on and it’s a blessing to be in this position,” Coach Wade said of Iyanna chasing the all-time school scoring record. “Kam was a great player and is a great person.

“(Iyanna) has done of great job of leading this team with more vocal more interaction with everyone,” Coach Wade said of his daughter’s leadership abilities. “She has done a great job.”

#Earned – You really could throw a dart against a calendar and in any given week during the high school basketball season, Wade could be a great candidate for Player of the Week. All she did this past week was score 103 points in two Clairton victories that helped the Bears remain in first place in Section 2-A. On Tuesday at home against Avella, Wade scored 14 points above her gaudy average of 40.8 points per game in a victory over the Eagles, 83-41. Two days later in a section trip to Greene County, the senior guard delivered 49 points in a 72-34 victory at Mapletown.

Background – As Wade wins down her incredible scholastic career, she continues to break records left and right. Last year, she broke the 32-year old WPIAL record for most individual points in a girls basketball game set by Maude Searcy of Wilkinsburg when she scored 65 points against Steel Valley. Wade has led the WPIAL in scoring two years in a row, averaging 33 points per game as a sophomore and 40 points per game as a junior. For her career, Wade has scored 2,578 points, leaving her 125 points shy of the school record set in 2003 by Kamela Gissendanner (2,703). She is 786 points shy of the all-time district record in points scored. Only three WPIAL players have eclipsed 3,000 career points in girls hoops — Gina Naccarato of Monessen (3,364 points), Charel Allen of Monessen (3,110) and Brooke Stewart of East Allegheny (3,055). Wade, the younger sister of former Clairton and Penn State football standout Lamont Wade, plans to visit schools after the season concludes before making her college decision. Her top goal the rest of this season is to help Clairton win its third WPIAL girls basketball championship and first since Gissendanner helped the Bears capture back-to-back titles in 2001 and ‘02.

2025 Trib HSSN Girls Basketball Players of the Week

Week 1 – Oumou “Mimi” Thiero, Quaker Valley

Tags: Clairton