The High Scoring of Iowa Girls 6-on-6 Basketball

High scores and girls six-on-six basketball went hand-in-hand. This segment from Iowa PBS’s More Than a Game: 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa documentary includes interviews with a reporter and player of the era.

Narrator: Denise Long, Lynne Lorenzen, high scoring, and six-on-six went hand-in-hand. It was why so many people loved the game and why they flocked to see a teenage girl score basket after basket. Each decade brought a new scoring phenom, racking up more and more points in front of her adoring fans. In a game leading up to the famous 1968 match-up, Denise Long shot the staggering total of 111 points Against Dows High School.
 
Denise (Long) Rife Union-Whitten H.S., 1965-1969: At the end of the game, this girl was guarding me. With about four minutes left and right before coach took me out, she looked at me and said, "I can't believe I'm guarding you." I said, "why?" She said, "I'm a forward. I've never played guard. You fouled out our whole guard court."
 
Frosty Mitchell, Sports Announcer: The thing I remember the most as a broadcaster in boys' basketball or collegiate men's basketball, I never had to worry about enough space on the score book. They didn't have score books made for some of those girls' high scorers at 60 points a night.