Regina junior Mary CromptonBy Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Even the best offensive teams have games when they struggle hitting shots.

The top defenses teams never seem to have an off night.

Regina didn’t have its best offensive performance on Saturday night against Clear Creek Amana but the Regals more than made up for it on defense.

Class 2A top-ranked Regina (2-0) shot just 33 percent from the field but forced Clear Creek Amana into 28 turnovers and held the Clippers to a season-low scoring output in a 58-23 win in a non-conference contest in Tiffin.

“We know we can play better, we know we can shoot the ball better and we have to finish better but I told our kids one of the things that we can never not do well is play great defense,” Regina coach Jeff Wallace said. “And tonight our defense was tremendous.”

Mary Crompton led three Regina players in double figures with 18 points but it was the Regina defense that was the difference.

The Regals’ full court pressure forced Clear Creek Amana (2-2) into 21 first-half turnovers as Regina built a 34-8 halftime lead.

Regina made just five of its first 25 field goal attempts but held the Clippers scoreless for nearly seven minutes during a 16-0 second-quarter run that pushed the lead to 32-6.

“Their pressure really hurt us,” Clear Creek Amana coach PJ Sweeney said. “We hadn’t seen pressure like that all year and when they get up in you like, we just weren’t able to handle it very well.”

Regina led 16-4 after the opening quarter despite hitting just 5-of-23 field goal attempts.

Kennedy Wallace hit a pair of 3-pointers in a span of 35 seconds to end the quarter and give the Regals a 12-point cushion.

“From game one to game two I would say we definitely made a jump,” Kennedy Wallace said. “I think we played a lot better and we shared the ball a lot.”

Karsyn Stratton opened the second quarter with a pull-up jumper but Regina scored the next 16 points to break the game open.

Regina shot just 28 percent from the field in the first half but got some transition layups off its full court press and nine second-quarter points from Crompton to take a 34-8 lead into halftime.

“They threw some different stuff at us, a defense we hadn’t seen before it was kind of a matchup zone but we were able to adjust to that,” Crompton said. “Then obviously we sped the game up and put pressure on them.”

Wallace hit four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points for Regina, which was 9-of-29 from 3-point range.

Sarah Lehman added 12 points for the Regals while Greyson Dumont and Alex Wiese each had six.

“I’d say we are deeper this year,” Kennedy Wallace said. “We have a lot more players coming off the bench this year and we have a lot of players that can do things to help us.”

Stratton led Clear Creek Amana with seven points while Meagan Harvey and Erin Navara each had five.

Abbi Kinnaird had 10 rebounds for Clear Creek Amana which shot 23 percent from the field.

“For the most part I thought the effort was there we just need to execute better,” Sweeney said. “I like our team a lot it just comes down to handling the pressure better.”

Clear Creek Amana     4  4   7 8 – 23
Regina                       16 18 16 8 – 58

Regina (58) – Mary Crompton 6-13 3-4 18, Alexa Lehman 0-3 0-0 0, Lauren Gaarde 0-3 0-0 0, Sarah Lehman 4-5 4-4 12, Emma Corkery 0-2 0-0 0, Greyson Dumont 2-8 0-0 6, Kennedy Wallace 5-15 0-0 14, Kennedy Scott 0-1 0-0 0, Megan Wick 1-3 0-0 2, Alex Wiese 3-9 0-0 6, Katie Dunn 0-1 0-0 0, Team 21-63 7-8 58.

Clear Creek Amana (23) – Lydia Banwart 0-0 2-2 2, Be DeShaw 0-4 0-1 0, Meagan Harvey 2-4 1-2 5, Claire Navara 0-4 2-2 2, Karsyn Stratton 3-7 1-2 7, Abbi Kinnaird 0-1 2-2 2, Katie Pitlick 0-1 0-0 0, Erin Navara 2-5 0-0 5, Lauren Helle 0-3 0-0 0, Team 7-30 8-11 23.

3-point field goals – CCA 1-5 (DeShaw 0-1, Neely 0-1, C. Navara 0-1, Kinnaird 0-1, E. Navara 1-1) ICR 9-29 (Crompton 0-13-8, Gaarde 0-1, Corkery 0-2, Dumont 2-6, Wallace 4-12). Rebounds – CCA 25 (Kinnaird 10), ICR 39 (Wiese 9). Turnovers – CCA 28, ICR 9. Total fouls – CCA 11, ICR 15. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.