Regina, Crompton Have Senior Night to Remember With Rout of Camanche
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
IOWA CITY – Mary Crompton’s senior season hasn’t gone exactly the way the Regina sharpshooter imagined.
A knee injury kept Crompton sidelined for the first nine games of the season as Regina exceeded its loss total from the previous two seasons combined during a 6-3 start.
On Friday Crompton got the Senior Night she had always envisioned.
Crompton poured in a season-high 34 points and became the all-time leading scorer at Regina in a 66-41 rout of Class 3A ninth-ranked Camanche on senior night at Regina.
“It was tough having to sit out the first part of the season but it was an unbelievable feeling being able to be there for my class on senior night,” Crompton said. “I’ve been playing with these girls since third grade so it was a really special feeling have a game like this on senior night.”
Class 2A No. 7 Regina never trailed on Friday, improving to 16-4 and 15-2 in RVC play with its fifth straight win and 10th in 11 games with Crompton in the lineup.
The senior guard made her first three 3-point attempts to give Regina a 9-2 that Camanche (15-6, 11-6) would never threaten.
“I’m always worried about senior nights because I’ve had games where they haven’t gone well and I really challenged the girls tonight to make sure that wasn’t going to be the case and they came out on fire,” Regina coach Jeff Wallace said. “We started our five seniors and they came out and really played well together, I’m really proud of them.”
Crompton got Regina going early.
She made her first four shots and scored 14 of her season-high 34 points in the opening quarter on 5-of-6 shooting.
“We were all really excited going into the game and we wanted to make sure that we didn’t let senior night get in the way of what we wanted to accomplish in the game,” Crompton said. “It was nice that we started off fast and got the momentum quick.”
Crompton entered the game needing eight points to surpass Ali Browning atop the Regina scoring list.
She didn’t waste any time breaking the scoring mark with a 3-pointer with 5:40 left in the first quarter.
“It’s an honor considering how many great players have played here,” Crompton said. “It means a lot to me and it’s something I couldn’t have done without my teammates.”
The sixth player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark, Crompton has 1,377 career points breaking the previous mark of 1,350 held by Browning.
“I would rank her up there with the best to ever play here,” Wallace said. “Of the girls I’ve seen here and coached here like Nikki Fleck, Kelsey Homewood that were really good, she’s in that category for sure.”
Crompton was nearly flawless in her final regular season game at Regina.
The Illinois State recruit finished 13-of-17 from the floor, including 8-of-11 from 3-point range on Friday.
She had 32 of her 32 points in the first three quarters.
“Each week since I’ve been back I’ve felt stronger and faster and my shot has felt better,” Crompton said. “Coming into the postseason I am feeling pretty confident.”
The senior night explosion by Crompton came on the heels of her worst performance of the season, a seven-point outing against West Branch on Tuesday.
Crompton made just two of seven field goal attempts and was 1-of-5 from 3-point range against the Bears.
“You aren’t going to keep her down for long she’s too good of a player,” Wallace said. “She’s not just too good of a shooter to keep her down she’s too good of a player. Even if her shot wasn’t falling tonight she would have made an impact in the game in other ways.”
The Regina senior class of Crompton, Katie Dunn, Greyson Dumont, Lauren Gaarde and Alex Lehman is now 88-10 over the past four years and 45-2 at home.
“It really means a lot to get a win on senior night,” Lehman said. “We’ve all been playing on this court and doing so well for so long so it really means a lot to go out this way.”
Regina closed the first quarter on a 15-3 run to take a 24-7 lead and led 38-20 at the half.
The Regals put things out of a reach with an 11-0 spur to close the third quarter.
“Camanche is definitely a really good team so I’m really proud of how we came out,” Crompton said. “I think that we brought a lot of energy and effort and we executed our game play well.”
Kennedy Wallace added 16 points and sophomore Elly Gahan had eight points and seven rebounds in the win.
Regina returns to action on Saturday with a road contest at Class 5A Cedar Rapids Kennedy.
Regina 24 14 24 4 – 66
Camanche 7 13 8 13 – 41
Regina (66) – Mary Crompton 13-17 0-0 34, Alexa Lehman 0-4 0-0 0, Lauren Gaarde 0-1 0-0 0, Annie Gahan 0-1 0-0 0, Claire Gaarde 0-1 0-0 0, Greyson Dumont 1-4 0-0 2, Kennedy Wallace 6-14 0-0 16, Alex Wiese 1-4 0-0 2, Elly Gahan 4-9 0-0 8, Katie Dunn 1-4 2-2 4, Team 26-59 2-2 66.
Camanche (41) – Lea Lefebure 5-10 0-0 10, Camaryn Carstensen 1-3 0-0 2, Madilynn Parson 3-8 0-0 6, Samantha Puckett 4-10 0-0 8, Hanna Nissen 1-4 0-0 3, Marly Bussa 3-8 1-4 8, Emily McElroy 0-1 0-0 0, Alexandra Nielsen 1-2 2-2 4, Team 18-46 3-6 41.
3-point field goals – ICR 12-27 (Crompton 8-11, Lehman 0-3, L. Gaarde 0-1, Wallace 4-12); CAM 2-13 (Lefebure 0-1, Carstensen 0-2, Puckett 0-1, Nissen 1-4, Bussa 1-4, Nielsen 0-1). Rebounds – ICR 34 (Wiese, Gahan 7); CAM 30 (Bussa 7). Turnovers – ICR 12; CAM 19. Total fouls – ICR 13; CAM 5. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.