Wade’s historic night propels Clairton
Bears junior scored 52 points, including go-ahead 3-ball late
Iyanna Wade has put up some stunning numbers during her career at Clairton.
She’s been the leading scorer in the WPIAL the last two years, finished this season averaging 40 points per game and set a WPIAL alltime single- game record with 65.
But even with all of those accomplishments on her belt, the Bears junior was missing one very important thing.
A playoff win.
But after missing several shots that could have given the Bears the lead late in their postseason opener against Freedom on Friday, it looked like she would have to wait another year for it to happen.
“I knew that I missed those for a reason because I knew I was going to make a big play at the end,” Wade said. “I was watching the clock and I knew God was going to have me make a big play in this game.”
Call it divine intervention or just on-court mastery, but Wade did exactly that.
Wade had a performance for the ages as the Clairton junior put up 52 points and 11 rebounds, including 29 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, to lead the 10th-seeded Bears (18-4) to a stunning 78-65 upset of 2023 finalist and No. 7 Freedom (12-11) in the opening round of the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs.
It’s the second- most points ever scored in a WPIAL girls basketball playoff game. East Allegheny’s Brooke Stewart set the record of 56 in 1997. Wade made 11 of 35 shots.
“Winning a playoff game was definitely one of my goals,” Wade said. “But to have 52 against a very talented team, I’m blessed.”
Wade nearly had to walk off the court with 37 points and on 0 for 3 in the postseason. She missed a couple of shots late, but the biggest seemed to come when, after making the first of a twoshot foul to cut the Freedom lead to 61-59 with 22 seconds left, she missed the second shot, got the rebound and missed a makeable layup that would have knotted it up.
Freedom junior guard Olivia Henderson was then fouled at the other end of the floor with 15.7 seconds remaining and had a chance to put make it a two-possession game and put it away. But after making the first to stake the Bulldogs to a 62-59 lead, Henderson, who led the team with 27, missed the second which gave the Bears and Wade one more chance.
And she wasn’t about to miss this one.
Wade took the ball up the floor and drilled a 3-pointer from the right side of the arc with 2.9 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime.
“Everybody is saying the last seven seconds the last five seconds lost the game for us. That didn’t lose the game for us,” Freedom coach John Kaercher said. “The game was lost because we couldn’t finish free throws and layups.”
Freedom was only 9 for 26 from the line in the game and shot just 24 for 73 from the field with 24 turnovers. It also didn’t help down the stretch the Bulldogs lost twotime all-state guard Shaye Bailey — who had 25 — when she fouled out with 2:55 remaining in regulation.
But once the game went to overtime, it was all Wade.
She opened the extra frame with a 3-pointer and scored the first eight points to start a 12-0 run for the Bears that put the game away.
“She’s a dog. She’s a straight animal,” Clairton coach Carlton Wade said. “She took it upon herself to come out in the second half and to dominate.”
What makes her night more amazing is that Wade was held scoreless on 0 for 6 shooting in the first quarter. She then scored 14 points in the second quarter thanks in large part to going 10 of 16 from the line in the period, but the team still trailed 3624 at the intermission. That was when Wade came alive.
She did not make a 3pointer in the first three quarters but hit five in the fourth quarter and overtime. She also finished the game an astonishing 25 of 33 from the line, including 10 of 13 in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“I knew as soon as we got down and saw a lot of heads down,” Wade said. “I knew we had a whole half to play, so I just gathered them together and put them on my back like a leader should do.”