MATTHEWS A year ago, Grace Academy's Greta Tamasauskaite was at Oak Ridge Military Academy playing basketball for former Wake Forest star Delaney Rudd.

Last summer, Oak Ridge eliminated its football and girls' basketball programs. Tamasauskaite had a friend - also from Lithuania - who was in the foreign exchange program at Grace Academy, a small private school on the southern end of Mecklenburg County. Her friend suggested a move to the Charlotte area.

Tamasauskaite made the move - and she's become a star.

Tamasauskaite averages 28.4 points, 7.2 steals and 4.8 assists for Grace Academy's girls' team, 22 points better than what she was scoring at Oak Ridge. Tuesday night, Tamasauskaite scored 57 points in an 83-57 win over Kennedy Charter School at home. No Mecklenburg County boys' or girls' high school player had ever scored that many in a single game, according to Observer records.

Tamasauskaite said she didn't realize what she had done until people told her after the game.

"No, I just play," she said. "I just play. They said, 'You got 57 points.' I said, 'OK.' I was just happy that we won."

Tamasauskaite, a senior, grew up with a love of basketball. She played for the Lithuanian U18 Division A team in the European Championships last season as a 5-foot-7 shooting guard.

Her plan is to play college basketball in the U.S. and one day play professionally in Europe. That's what led her to attend high school here.

"We don't have college basketball," she said, "and I wanted to play college ball. I think it will help."

Tamasauskaite said the move to Grace Academy has helped. She's getting serious recruiting interest from Lamar (Texas) University, Virginia Intermont and UNC Pembroke. And she's had some big scoring performances, including 45 points in a game this season.

But nothing like Tuesday.

"She can shoot," Kennedy Charter girls' coach Chiquita Foster said after watching the 57-point game from the visitors' bench. "Every time she shot, it went in. She's a pure shooter. I like her game. And instead of doing a lot of talking, she just showed what she could do on the court. Her personality is outstanding. Even after the game, she wasn't cocky. She didn't show any emotion. She just came to play."

Her scoring performance erased a 21-year-old record of 51 points, set by Providence Day's Konecka Drakeford, a three-time Parade All-American.

Only five Mecklenburg County boys or girls players had ever scored more than 50 points in a game.

None had scored more than 53, as Providence Day's Taylor Mokris did in 2001.

Tamasauskaite's performance, however, didn't surprise Grace Academy boys' coach Tim Sayles, who has watched her go up against his boys' team often. Grace Academy is off tonight but plays the Cabarrus Stallions at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Crews Road Rec Center in Matthews.

"With the ball in her hands, she's like a bull in a china shop," he said. "She's really strong and will test defenders with whether they want to continue to live or not. I'm serious. Even when she's playing my boys, they don't want to take a charge from her. She can shoot from the outside and she's a tenacious defender."

Tamasauskaite said she's just doing the best she can.

"I am working hard so it's not that I'm surprised," she said. "I just work hard and just try to play hard every game."