Editor’s note: This is part of a series examining Wisconsin high school records that are unlikely to be broken. The series will publish through July.
Anthony Pieper’s prolific scoring abilities were forged in backyard one-on-one series against his older brother Phil.
Anthony said it took him eight years to score on Phil, who was seven years older.
“Even if I made a good move, he’d do something like tackle me or throw me against the wall,” Anthony said.
Wausaukee’s Mike Cavanaugh (24), Anthony Pieper and Corey Biernasz (20) celebrate their 69-57 victory over Cassville to become the 1993 WIAA Div. 4 state champions.
Eighth grade is when Anthony scored his first basket on Phil, a member of the UW-Oshkosh men’s basketball team at the time after graduating from Wausaukee as the school’s all-time leading scorer. Anthony said finally scoring on his brother made him believe he was a good player.
“He built that hunger in me to want it more, and when things went rough, I’d pull back from when I was a kid,” Anthony said.
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Anthony began carving out his own Wausaukee legacy freshman year, when he started on the varsity team, which was led by his father, Gene Pieper.
He scored 488 points that season and started receiving his first letters from colleges that interested in him. Anthony used that as motivation and developed an offseason routine that resulted in his “biggest jump as a player,” he said.
He went to the gym every day with his mother, Sue Pieper, as a rebounder and put up more than 33,000 shots in three months.
“I looked at the notebook daily, and my mom would track the shots as I counted the makes, and that was our nice daily routine for the entire summer,” Anthony said. “My dad already had a 10,000 shot club that if you wanted to play and be on the team you did.”
Anthony scored 808 points his sophomore year, helping Wausaukee make the state tournament in 1991, where the Rangers lost to Shullsburg 61-57 in the Division 4 state semifinals.
Anthony was the Marinette & Oconto Conference’s MVP that season, an honor he received again the next two years.
“When we got beat in the Final Four, it was disappointing because that was a very good team to go along with Anthony,” Gene said.
Anthony became the focal point of the Rangers’ up-tempo offense his junior year, when he scored 1,032 points. Wausaukee’s offense mimicked that of “Loyola Marymount in the early 1990s,” Anthony said.
That mark set the state record for points in a season but only lasted a year before Anthony eclipsed it as a senior. The 6-foot-3 guard scored 1,063 points the following season, a record that still stands.
“It was controlled chaos at times, but it got me out in the open court a lot and got me to the bucket,” Anthony said. “There were times I scored 8 to 10 points within a minute because I’d hit a 3-pointer, then we’d full-court press and get steals leading to dunks or layups for me.”
Anthony became the state’s career scoring leader Jan. 16, 1993, during a home game against Suring.
Anthony remembers waking up that Saturday morning to a line of fans wrapped around the gym and extending near his house, which was across the street.
There was standing room only in the gym, and even the stage inside was opened for the overflow of spectators. Fans in attendance came dressed in custom T-shirts and created the “Pieper meter” to track his points during the game.
Anthony broke the record in the second half, and the game was paused to recognize his achievement. He surpassed the previous mark of 2,724 points set in 1975 by St. Nazianz JFK Prep’s Mickey Crowe set in 1975.
Gene, who watched Crowe play in high school, said Anthony rarely played in fourth quarters while Crowe played into the final minutes of most games. Anthony wrapped up the season with 3,391 career points scored.
“I feel like I played terribly that day because I was pushing too hard and just wanted to get it over with,” Anthony said. “It was a pretty good feeling, and after the game, I had media all over me, which for a 17-year-old felt pretty cool.”
Anthony averaged 38.4 points per game his senior year and scored a career-high 59 points in the Rangers’ regional final win that postseason.
He was The Associated Press’ player of the year, a McDonald’s and Gatorade All-American and the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association’s Mr. Basketball.
While Anthony was the team’s point guard, he did most of his damage off-ball, coming off screens to score on midrange jumpers or at the basket. It helped him navigate through double teams he often faced.
“We used Bob Knight’s theory of screeners and pickers, where I was the mover and everyone else was screeners,” Anthony said. “My job was to wear these guys out so much that they didn’t want to guard me anymore.”
Anthony capped his senior season by helping Wausaukee win the program’s lone state title. He scored 42 points in the Division 4 state title game to defeat former Wisconsin Badgers player Sam Okey and Cassville 69-57.
Anthony also scored 42 points in the state semifinals and holds the record for most points in a state tournament. His 42 points was a Division 4 state tournament game record until Kenosha St. Joseph’s Eric Kenesie scored 51 points in 2023.
“I probably played my worst game in the semis because I shot 36 times to score 42 points, but I did come up clutch and hit the game-winner for us,” Anthony said. “It couldn’t have been a better way to end and it would’ve been very disappointing not to win the state title because that’s what me and my teammates worked for.”
No one has mounted a serious challenge to Anthony’s 31-year-old record, with no other boys player having reached 3,000 career points. Megan Gustafson owns the state’s girls basketball career scoring record with 3,229 points while playing for South Shore from 2011 to 2015.
One factor in Anthony’s favor in outpacing others was opportunity. Wausaukee reached at least the sectional final in all four years he played (1989 to 1993), which meant more games for him to score. Anthony played in 103 of a possible 108 games during his career. He finished with a career average of 32.9 points per game.
The WIAA now allows a max of 24 regular-season games, whereas teams were limited to 20 when Pieper played. A player would need to average 848 points per season for four seasons to top Anthony’s mark, and only seven boys players besides Anthony ever have topped that mark in a season.
“I was aggressively trying to score and forced shots at times,” Anthony said. “You must have solid teammates that are willing to be frustrated at times because maybe you went 1-on-2 or 3 too many times.”
Anthony, who now works as a caddy at Liberty National Golf Course in New Jersey, went on to play at Marquette from 1993 to 1997), where he entered “as a cocky freshman,” he said. He became more reserved after a rough first season and averaged at least 11 points per game over his final three seasons.
“Everyone telling you how good you are can really mess with your head, and at times it did for me even when I was trying to play it off,” he said.
Wausaukee High School product Anthony Pieper reacts after hitting a basket in the second half for Marquette University against St. Bonaventure in a 1995 National Invitation Tournament game in Milwaukee. Pieper led Marquette with 24 points in a 70-61 victory.
Pieper played overseas after graduating, making stops in Slovakia, Austria, Ireland and Belgium. He returned to the United States after retiring from the sport and now resides in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Despite traveling around the world he always expresses his love for Wausaukee.
“Growing up in a small town of 500 people helped me stay away from trouble and that was a fun time because everyone in the community was at our games,” Pieper said.
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Renderings show updated plans for Wisconsin’s new indoor practice facility
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows a view of Wisconsin’s proposed indoor practice facility and Camp Randall Veterans Memorial Plaza.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows a view of Wisconsin’s proposed indoor practice facility from the east.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows Wisconsin’s proposed indoor practice facility behind Engineering Hall.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows a view of Wisconsin’s proposed indoor practice facility from the northeast with the existing Engineering Hall removed.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows a view of Wisconsin’s proposed Camp Randall Veterans Memorial Plaza in front of the indoor practice facility.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows the entry point to Wisconsin’s proposed Camp Randall Veterans Memorial Plaza from Monroe Street.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows the southeast corner of Wisconsin’s proposed indoor practice facility and Camp Randall Veterans Memorial Plaza.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows the walkway along the east side of Wisconsin’s proposed indoor practice facility along Camp Randall Memorial Park.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows the northeast corner of Wisconsin’s proposed indoor practice facility.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows the main entry of Wisconsin’s proposed indoor practice facility on the north side of the building.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows a view of Wisconsin’s proposed Camp Randall Veterans Memorial Plaza and indoor practice facility from the south.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows a view of Wisconsin’s proposed indoor practice facility from the east.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows a view of Wisconsin’s proposed indoor practice facility from the north.
A rendering included with a presentation to the June 27 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows an overhead view of Camp Randall Veterans Memorial Plaza.
