Class AA All-State Team & Player of the Year
When Alyssa Ustby Alyssa Ustby 6'2" | CG Rochester Lourdes | 2020 State MN first arrived in our collective consciousness about five years ago she was all arms and legs and athletic potential. Now, her senior season having concluded unceremoniously…
Access all of Prep Girls Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingWhen Alyssa Ustby Alyssa Ustby 6'2" | CG Rochester Lourdes | 2020 State MN first arrived in our collective consciousness about five years ago she was all arms and legs and athletic potential. Now, her senior season having concluded unceremoniously a little more than a week ago, the position-less player from Rochester Lourdes has lived up to all of our collective expectations and more. We’re happy to send her off to the University of North Carolina with one final pat on the back: Prep Girls Hoops Class AA Player of the Year.
Ustby is one of five players named to our Class AA All-State First Team along with Roseau’s Katie Borowicz Katie Borowicz 5'6" | PG Roseau | 2021 State MN , Paige Meyer Paige Meyer 5'6" | PG Albany | 2021 State MN of Albany and a pair of uber-talented guards from Duluth Marshall in Grace Kirk and Gianna Kneepkens Gianna Kneepkens 5'11" | CG Duluth Marshall | 2021 State #86 Nation MN . In addition we offer you 10 more players who have earned All-State recognition in Class AA for the 2019-20 high school season.
Alyssa Ustby Alyssa Ustby 6'2" | CG Rochester Lourdes | 2020 State MN – senior wing, Rochester Lourdes (North Carolina)
Ustby brings a vast array of assets to the table. She is longer than long, with a wingspan that stretches from here to Chapel Hill. She is athletic, with some serious hops. She is one of the fastest players in the state. Alyssa can also score. She reached the 2,000 career points mark this season against Owatonna and followed that up with a 37-point performance against Burnsville the next day. She scored 662 points this year, nearly 27 per game.
The #3-ranked prospect in the senior class is also one of the very best defenders in the state, having earned our AAU Defensive Player of the Year award last summer. She can block shots, defend all five positions and is quick enough to stay with pretty much any player she comes up against. Enough said. Ustby is a worthy winner. So, too, are the rest of the All-State honorees, a group that includes seven seniors, six juniors and two sophomores.
Grace Kirk – senior guard, Duluth Marshall (Brown)
Kirk has always been able to score the basketball. Since emerging on the high school basketball scene, Grace’s exceptional skill set has been turning heads in the Northland and beyond. She has been a scoring machine at Marshall, where her arrival transformed a high school basketball program that had been struggling for years prior. She’s quick, athletic, and highly skilled, and is a nightmare to defend one-on-one. Kirk averaged over 27 points per game last season with a high game of 49. This year the Hilltoppers spread the scoring around a little more, but Kirk still averaged 22. 5 points per game on 51% shooting from the field, 40% from beyond the arc and 78% at the line.
Gianna Kneepkens Gianna Kneepkens 5'11" | CG Duluth Marshall | 2021 State #86 Nation MN – junior guard, Duluth Marshall
The other half of Duluth Marshall’s very dynamic duo, Kneepkens was somehow left off the Minnesota coaches All-State first team. That’s not going to happen here. The 5’11 guard is one of the state’s most skilled players, with extraordinary ball-handling, superior shot-making and overall court savvy. She is among the very best players in the class of 2021. Kneepkens led all Minnesota high school players in scoring last winter. Last summer with the Minnesota Fury’s top 2021 squad, Gianna proved that she could perform equally well against the country’s best. This season she was second in the state in scoring with 816 points (31.4 ppg) and made 65 three-point baskets. She averaged more than 10 rebounds per game to go with better than five assists, more than four steals.
Katie Borowicz Katie Borowicz 5'6" | PG Roseau | 2021 State MN – junior guard, Roseau (Minnesota)
What has Katie done in her career? More like what hasn’t she done. The perfect season and state championship in 2017 likely tops the list, but there have been so many individual accomplishments, too. This season the #4 prospect in the Prep Girls Hoops class of 2021 led the state in scoring with 839 points, an average of 32.3 per game. She also topped all others in Minnesota with 115 made threes and concluded the year by committing to her dream school, the University of Minnesota. Katie is a 55% field goal shooter and 83% from the free throw line. She also averages 6 rebounds, 6 assists and nearly 7 steals per game. The numbers are ridiculous, but there are no statistical data you can use to measure her most valuable asset: shear will. Nobody wants it more.
Paige Meyer Paige Meyer 5'6" | PG Albany | 2021 State MN – junior guard, Albany
Last year Paige practically willed her team to the state tournament. This year the 27-3 Huskies came up a little bit short as they fell to Sauk Centre in the section final. That doesn’t diminish what Meyer did on an individual level. Ranked #16 in the junior class, the 5’6 Meyer opened the season with a 31-point performance in a one-point win over Stewartville at the Breakdown Tipoff. She went on to average better than 23 points per game. Along the way she showed us once again that she is outstanding with the basketball in her hands. Paige has tremendous court vision, terrific abilities one-on-one and can score in many different ways. The one thing that really stands out about Meyer, though, is her toughness. Paige is a hard-nosed, physical guard who can go toe-to-toe with anyone.
SECOND TEAM
Maggie Czinano Maggie Czinano 6'1" | SF Watertown-Mayer | 2021 State MN – junior forward, Watertown-Mayer (Minnesota)
Maggie has been very good for a very long time, but the 2019-20 high school season has to be considered her breakout year. The 6-footer is long and fluid and plays the game in such a natural way. She has honed her skills over time to the point where she earned a Big 10 scholarship offer which she accepted from the University of Minnesota. Czinano rose to #12 in the 2021 prospect rankings while averaging 21 points per game.
Mia Curtis Mia Curtis 5'8" | CG Minnehaha | 2020 State MN – senior guard, Minnehaha Academy (Dartmouth)
Mia played six seasons of varsity basketball at Minnehaha, a decorated career than saw her shatter the record books and win the 2018-19 state AA title. This year the #21-rated prospect in the 2020 class garnered headlines right from the start by leading the Redhawks to a thrilling 89-86 win at the Breakdown Tipoff over Sauk Centre in three overtimes. Curtis had 42 points in that game. She went on to score 619 points (24.8 ppg) for the year and successfully landed 81 three-pointers.
Natalie Bremer Natalie Bremer 5'11" | CG Lake City | 2022 State MN – sophomore guard, Lake City
The 5’11 guard is a slasher with great handles and quick feet who really knows how to take it to the hole. She’s also super long. Bremer can shoot from significant distance and is a consistent scorer, averaging over 20 points per game. This year she topped the 30-point mark four times and had 8 more games in the 20s. With a huge motor and a strong work ethic, Bremer has improved pretty much every aspect of her game. She shot up the rankings this year and is now #33 in the sophomore class.
Ellie Colbeck Ellie Colbeck 5'9" | PG Fergus Falls | 2022 State MN – sophomore guard, Fergus Falls
The 5’9 guard is an intelligent floor general. She’s smooth and skilled, but does not over-handle the ball. Ellie’s preferred shot is the corner three at which she is quite adept. She plays with poise and presence, and is not afraid of the big moment. Last year Colbeck led Fergus Falls to the state tournament. This year they lost the section final to undefeated Pelican Rapids on a miracle make at the buzzer by Maddie Guler. The Otters finished with a record of 22-5 and Colbeck averaged over 20 points per game.
Ivane Tensaie Ivane Tensaie 5'7" | CG Concordia | 2021 State MN – junior guard, Concordia Academy
Tensaie is one of the most exciting players in Minnesota’s junior class and she certainly showed it this season. The 5’6 point guard is super quick, has terrific hops and can really fire the basketball. That combination helped her lead Concordia Academy past Minnehaha and into the state tournament for the first time. Along the way Tensaie did it all. She averaged nearly 20 points per game, registered back-to-back 40-point games in January, and topped the 20-point mark 15 times while making 103 triples.
HONORABLE MENTION
Gus Boyer Gus Boyer 5'10" | CG Waseca | 2020 State MN – senior guard, Waseca (UM-Duluth)
Gus is a top-30 prospect who has done it all in her high school career. Unfortunately that career was cut short when Boyer went down on Jan. 30 with a torn ACL. She still played 20 games and set the tone for the Bluejays night after night, averaging 20 ppg. Boyer scored 1,365 points in her Waseca career, with 678 of them coming from beyond the arc. She had the most 3-pointers in school history (226), won two conference titles, and two section titles. The 5’10 guard with the super-sized motor will eventually return to the court at Minnesota Duluth.
Miah Monahan Miah Monahan 5'8" | CG Glencoe-Silver Lake | 2021 State MN – junior guard, Glencoe-Silver Lake
Miah is so subtle, so smooth, that we are sometimes guilty of forgetting just how good she really is. The #31 prospect in the Prep Girls Hoops class of 2021 has been a high school standout for a long time now. She offered up more low-key excellence this season by scoring nearly 23 points per game including a 45-point game against Annandale. Monahan shot 58% from the field, 82% at the free throw line and made 74 threes while averaging nearly 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals per game. Miah is a lock for D1.
Sam Pogatchnik Sam Pogatchnik 5'9" | CG Proctor | 2020 State MN – senior guard, Proctor (Bemidji State)
Pogatchnik burst on the scene as a freshman, scoring nearly 20 points per game while shooting better than 50% from the field and 80% at the line. Over the next three seasons Sam showed us tremendous leadership skills as she was the core of a group of seniors who carried Proctor to unprecedented success. In mid-December, the Bemidji State commit went 6-for-7 from the field to score 18 points against Mesabi East to become the Rails all-time leading scorer, male or female.
Ava Hill Ava Hill 5'8" | CG Mesabi East | 2020 State MN – senior guard, Mesabi East (Minnesota track)
The 5’8 guard is one of the best pure athletes in the state of Minnesota. Just as she has proved in track meets across America, Hill showed it once again on the basketball court this season as the top-25 prospect dominated countless contests in the Northland. This year Hill averaged nearly 24 points per game. She had Division 1 basketball opportunities but in the end decided to take her quick feet and uber-competitive persona to the University of Minnesota where she’ll run track.
Emma Kniefel Emma Kniefel 5'10" | SF Medford | 2020 State MN – senior wing, Medford (Gustavus)
Smooth. If there’s one adjective we have likely used more than any other to describe Emma over the years that’s probably it. Besides the superior length, impossibly long strides and terrific touch around the basket, Kniefel is one of the most fluid players in the state. She’s also very, very competitive. Again this year the top-50 prospect put the ball in the basket, too, recording 20 ppg and becoming Medford’s all-time leading scorer.
Top photo: Alyssa Ustby Alyssa Ustby 6'2" | CG Rochester Lourdes | 2020 State MN of Rochester Lourdes (left) and Ivane Tensaie Ivane Tensaie 5'7" | CG Concordia | 2021 State MN (right) of Concordia Academy. (Photo courtesy of StarTribune)