By Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – After five consecutive lopsided victories to open the season Regina expected to get a tough test from Class 3A ninth-ranked Monticello on Tuesday.

The Regals passed that test in impressive fashion.

Class 2A top-ranked Regina forced 29 turnovers and have four players score in double figures in a 74-45 win over Monticello (5-1, 5-1) in a top-10 showdown of River Valley Conference unbeatens at Regina.

Alex Wiese had a game-high 20 points and nine rebounds and Mary Crompton added 19 points as Regina (6-0, 5-0 RVC) won its sixth straight game by more than 20 points to open the season.

“We were expecting a really good game because they are a great team and they play really hard,” Wiese said. “We figured tonight we be a good test and we had a lot of fun against some great competition.”

Regina outscored Monticello 15-6 in the second quarter to break open at 16-all tie and never let the Panthers get closes than six the rest of the game.

Sarah Lehman had 16 points and Kennedy Wallace added 12 for Regina which scored more than 70 points for the third straight game.
Regina sophomore Alex Wiese
Regina shot 47 percent from the field and had 29 more field goal attempts than Monticello on Tuesday.

“We knew that it was going to be a tough game, they do a lot of things well,” Crompton said. “We just had to make sure that we played our game and did everything that we’ve done the last couple of games.”

Monticello led 16-12 with under a minute to play in the opening quarter but Regina scored four unanswered points in the final 44 seconds to even the score at 16 after one quarter.

The Regals opened the second quarter with five consecutive points on a 3-pointer by Crompton and a pair of free throws by Wiese.

Regina never trailed again.

“We just turned it on and there we went,” Wiese said. “I don’t know what it was but we just took off.”

Monticello got as close as 23-20 on a pair of free throws from Lauren Ries but Regina closed the half with an 8-2 run to take a 31-22 halftime lead.

Monticello got as close as six on two occasions in the third quarter but Regina used a 12-2 run that featured six points from Wiese to take control of the game.

A conventional 3-point play by Crompton capped the run and put Regina up 46-30 with 4:04 left in the third quarter.

“I think Monticello is a state tournament team, I really do, I will be shocked if they don’t make it to the state tournament,” Regina coach Jeff Wallace said. “They are really good, they are very well coached, they have really good players and our kids were really focused. We still have some things to work on for sure but I was really proud of our effort.”

Regina used its full court pressure defense to force 18 first-half Monticello turnovers.

The Panthers only turned it over four times in the third quarter but Regina forced seven fourth-quarter turnovers while putting the game out of reach.

Regina opened the fourth quarter with an 10-2 surge that started with a Sarah Lehman 3-point play just 16 seconds into the quarter.

“We didn’t change much after the first quarter but we know that if we keep our pressure up that eventually it will wear teams out,” Crompton said. “I think that’s kind of what happened.”

Regina held Ries, who entered the game averaging a team-high 15.4 points per game, to seven points and without a field goal on Tuesday.

Ries finished with seven points while Taylor McDonald led Monticello with 15 points.

“We just tried to make it difficult on her as much as possible, we put her at the line too many times but we just tried to make it where every time they came down on offense they were having a hard time getting shots off,” Wallace said of defending Ries. “Mary Crompton doesn’t get enough credit for her defense but she is a tremendous defensive player and she really did a good job non her as did some other kids.”

Regina       16 15 23 20 – 74
Monticello 16 6  19   4  – 45

Monticello (45) – Taylor McDonald 4-6 6-8 15, Jacqueline Petersen 1-2 0-0 2, Shay Stephen 2-6 0-0 4, Rileigh Lambert 0-1 0-0 0, Anna Loes 0-1 0-0 0, Lauren Ries 0-6 7-8 7, Madison Lambert 2-3 0-2 4, Rylee Warthen 4-4 0-0 9, Madison Fellinger 0-1 2-2 2, Jordan Kuper 1-3 0-1 2, Team 14-33 15-21 45.

Regina (74) – Mary Crompton 8-14 1-1 19, Alexa Lehman 2-4 0-0 5, Sarah Lehman 6-14 4-5 16, Greyson Dumont 0-3 0-0 0, Kennedy Wallace 4-12 0-0 12, Katie Bracken 1-1 0-0 2, Megan Wick 0-2 0-0 0, Alex Wiese 8-12 4-6 20, Team 29-62 9-12 74.

3-point field goals – ICR 7-24 (Crompton 2-6, A. Lehman 1-2, S. Lehman 0-1, Dumont 0-2, Wallace 4-12, Wiese 0-1) MON 2-8 (McDonald 1-1, Stephen 0-2, Ries 0-4, Warthen 1-1). Rebounds – ICR 29 (Wiese 9) MON 29 (Ries 6). Turnovers – ICR 15, MON 29. Total fouls – ICR 21, MON 14. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.