MCDOWELL, Ky. – Some may remember Kobe Bryant’s retirement game in 2016. The late legend scored a smooth 81 points to finish a career already flush with accomplishments.

It may be odd to imagine, but a high school player from right here in Eastern Kentucky matched that, dropping exactly 81 points in a single game. That phenom was McDowell Daredevil great Geri Grigsby, who did it during her junior year for the Floyd County school.

And it’s only one of a host of jaw-dropping stats Grigsby racked up in mid- to late-70s.

In the 1976-77 season, her Miss Basketball season, her talent spilled outside the region when she scored 1,885 points, good enough for the national record. Across that season, Grigsby averaged, wait for it, 49.8 points a game. Total for her high school career? Still the highest mark for boy’s or girl’s at a whopping 4,385 points over only three years.

I know. Video game numbers, right?

It’s not surprising that among her honors are having been named first-team All-State in 1975, 1976, and 1977. She was named Kentucky’s Sportswoman of the Year the following year in 1978.

Grigsby rests easily in the National Federation of State High School Association’s Hall of Fame, the Dawahares KHSAA Hall of Fame, and the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame.