Grandview girls basketball alum Michaela Onyenwere taken sixth in WNBA Draft
One of Grandview’s all-time greats is headed to the professional level. Michaela Onyenwere, a former standout for the Wolves who led them to the 2017 Class 5A girls basketball championship, was selected by the New York Liberty with the sixth overall pick in the WNBA Draft.
Onyenwere is the 11th Colorado high school product to be selected in the annual draft and the first to ever be taken in the first round.
Her career is one of the best in Colorado state history. She scored 2,290 points, pulled down 1,061 rebounds and had 357 steals in her four years with Grandview. She was a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year and earned McDonald’s All-American honors after her senior season and before heading to California to play basketball for UCLA.
Grandview reached the Final 4 in Onyenwere’s junior season, but lost by two points to eventual champion ThunderRidge. The Wolves rebounded a year later, storming their way through the 5A state tournament where they beat Lakewood 61-32 to win their first state championship in program history.
She showed emotion with her high school career coming to an end, but she still had so much more greatness to give the game.
While playing for the Bruins, she scored 1,888 and grabbed 885 rebounds. She averaged a career-high 19.1 points this last season, her senior year. If not for a pandemic shortened season, she likely would have surpassed the 2,000 point mark for her collegiate career.
She’ll join another Colorado standout when joins the Liberty as Mesa Ridge alum Kylee Shook was taken by New York in the second round of last year’s draft. Shook was the highest drafted Colorado player until Thursday night when Onyenwere was taken at No. 6.
