Arrowhead wins its first girls basketball state title since 1991 with Division 1 win over Neenah

ASHWAUBENON — The 33-year drought is over for Arrowhead.

Behind a stellar second-half performance from sophomore Natalie Kussow in an epic duel with Connecticut recruit Allie Ziebell, the Arrowhead Warhawks (27-3) won their first state girls basketball championship since 1991 in a 69-59 victory over Neenah (24-6) in the Division 1 title game.

Ziebell shot 14-for-29 from the field for 35 points with seven three-pointers on 16 attempts in her final high school game, while Kussow came alive down the stretch on both ends of the floor over the final 9 minutes of the season. She finished with 26 points, eight rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocks after missing eight of her first 13 shots.

"I think you all saw that she's not forcing stuff," Arrowhead coach Ron Reichle said. "She's doing it within the system and she's just that good. Our offense is better when she sets the first screen and everybody's gotta help. Everybody's screening. Everybody's curling.

"She's ultra-competitive. Every girl at practice gets better every single day because Natalie's not gonna let you just coast. I think she'd get mad at me if we just took it easy every day."

The two stars combined to score 134 points over their two performances on the weekend. Ziebell finished as the second all-time leading scorer in Division 1 tournament history with 75 points after a 40-point performance in Neenah's win over Hartford on Friday. Kussow came in behind Ziebell as the third-highest scorer in D1 state history with 59 points after her 33-point performance against Franklin in the semifinals.

"It's so much fun to play against great players," Ziebell said on her matchups with Minnesota recruit Makena Christian on Friday and Kussow on Saturday. "Wisconsin basketball goes so unnoticed as well. I think there's so much great talent here in every division that goes just so unrecognized. Having that great talent and being able to compete every night is an unreal feeling."

The two sides jousted throughout much of the first half with Arrowhead holding an eight-point lead on two separate occasions thanks to 12 first-half points from Erica Bub and a pair of triples from Abby Robel with Kussow off to a slow start with six points on nine shot attempts. Ziebell's final shot of the half dropped to bring the Warhawks lead down to 34-29 at the break with 14 first-half points.

Neenah battled back and took a 43-40 lead with 12:11 to go on a step-back triple from Ziebell before a 12-0 run put the Warhawks in front for good over the final 8:15, when Kussow took over. She scored 16 of her 26 points in that final 8-plus-minute stretch to bring a second gold ball of the tournament back to the greater Milwaukee area.

"It's awesome to be on this team and to be able to trust your teammates," the modest Kussow said. "We've been working hard at practice to prepare for this moment. It's been awesome."

Kussow scored 20 points in the second half on 6-of-9 shooting, including hitting seven of her eight free throw attempts. She grabbed six rebounds and dished out three of her six assists in the half to help send the Warhawks to the mountaintop for what could be the first of two times.

The Arrowhead boys exacted some revenge Saturday afternoon in an 85-80 victory over defending-Division 1 state-champion De Pere in a state title game rematch from a season ago. There were a few extra supporters in the Arrowhead section during the victory.

"Today, we were like, 'It's Arrowhead's day,'" Robel said after the girls attended the boys game in Oshkosh before their matchup with Neenah.

"We came back and said, 'Let's feed off that energy we felt there and take it to our game, too.'"

"That game just made me nervous," Reichle added with a smile. "I walked out of there shaking, but these guys were ready to go."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Arrowhead beats Neenah for first girls hoop state title since 1991 D1