Just a day after National Women in Sports Day, Cedar Ridge junior Amiyah Ware set a mark that will likely live on for decades.
Unless she breaks it herself. Again.
Ware scored 54 points for Cedar Ridge in a 69-64 loss to Western Alamance at Coach Erma Adams Court in Elon. She broke a series of records and milestones. For starters, she shattered her own school record, which she set in her first game in a Cedar Ridge uniform when she scored 37 points against East Chapel Hill on December 6 at Wildcats Gymnasium. Ware tied her own record last month against Eastern Alamance in Hillsborough.
She also broke the county record, regardless of gender, that had stood since 1978. Orange High’s Ronnie McAdoo held the previous Orange County record when he scored 53 points in a 92-76 win over Southern Durham on January 24, 1978. McAdoo, who went on to play at Old Dominion, accomplished the feat without the benefit of a 3-point line, which was introduced in North Carolina High School basketball in 1988.
No player from Chapel Hill, East Chapel Hill or Carrboro High has ever surpassed 50 points in a game in recorded history.
Ware’s total is the 10th-highest ever recorded in a women’s game, according to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association record book. She surpassed the 53 points compiled by Wendy Palmer, who played at Person High School, against Northern Durham in 1991. After Palmer graduated from Person, she went on to play at Virginia and eventually in the Women’s National Basketball Association, starting with the Utah Starzz, for eleven seasons.
The all-time women’s record in North Carolina is held by Clinton’s Mikayla Boykin, who scored 63 points for Clinton against Pender County in 2017. Boykin, now with the Charlotte 49ers, holds the top-two spots on the all-time single-game list. She scored 62 points against Triton in 2016.
“It was inhuman, honestly,” said Cedar Ridge women’s coach Megan Skouby. “She played her butt off tonight, scoring 54 points out of 64 total points. She has absolutely been a game changer for us. She leads the floor. She’s our point guard. Teams have to concentrate so much on her. And when she’s on, she is just unstoppable.”
It’s the most points scored in a women’s game since Charlotte Sherrill tallied 56 for Blue Ridge High School against Nantahala in 2021.
Ware has changed the fate of the Cedar Ridge women’s team after she transferred from the Burlington School last summer. She tore the ACL in her right knee last spring, which led to her missing the opening six games of this season. The Red Wolves lost each of their first six games, but nearly won her in her debut at East Chapel Hill.
On December 9, Ware scored 19 points as the Red Wolves defeated Person 50-27 in Roxboro, which ended Cedar Ridge’s 39-game conference losing streak. It was Cedar Ridge’s first conference win since February 8, 2019.
Since then, Ware has scored over 20 points in nine consecutive games. She had 34 points against Eastern Alamance on Tuesday night, her final home game of the season.
Cedar Ridge will end its regular season this week. They will wrap up Central Carolina Conference regular season play at Walter Williams in Burlington on Tuesday night. The Red Wolves will face Durham School of the Arts at Paul Sykes Gymnasium on Wednesday night. Cedar Ridge will start play in the CCC Tournament on February 13.
“I saw some real growth from our team against Western Alamance,” Skouby said. “Not just from Amiyah, but our defense looked really good. We were very aggressive. We’ve definitely gotten better as the year has gone on. They just have to continue that and hopefully. If we played like we did tonight against some of these other teams, we wouldn’t be where we are now. Let’s just put it that way.”