Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Before Friday the top defensive performance and the biggest win for Regina this season were both up for debate.  

Regina left no doubt about either of those distinctions with a 73-34 throttling of Camanche in a River Valley Conference cross-divisional showdown in Iowa City.

The Regals dominated from start to finish while pushing their season-best winning streak to seven.

Regina was especially impressive on the defensive end holding Camanche (14-6, 12-4) to a season low scoring output and more than 37 points below its season average.

“This is the best we’ve been defensively all year,” Regina coach Jared Galpin said. “They are such a great offensive team, they have seven guys that can pull from three, and I thought we did an outstanding job.”

The best win of the season for Regina prior to Friday was a 52-44 road win at then eighth-ranked Northeast.

The Regals changed that with an emphatic performance against the Indians.

Regina scored the final 10 points of the first quarter to break open a one-point game and never let Camanche cut the lead to single digits the rest of the way while improving to 15-3 and 15-1 in RVC play.

“We knew it was going to be a big game and we just didn’t want to go a step in the wrong direction after the win over Northeast,” Regina senior Zach Seaman said. “We came out with a lot of energy.”

A year ago, Camanche made 13 3-pointers and scored 103 points in a 30-point win over Regina.

This time it was Regina that used some hot-shooting to turn it into a rout.

“It was kind of an emotional game for us, kind of a revenge game I’d say,” Regina sophomore point guard Masen Miller said. “They kind of took it to us last year at their place so it’s a big win for us.”

Regina went 11-of-21 from 3-point range and had three players score in double figures led by Seaman with 17.

The senior guard was 4-of-5 from 3-point range and hit all three of his first-half 3-point attempts as Regina built a 37-22 halftime lead.

“Defense was big in the first quarter and I thought getting off to a hot start was big because with a team like that you don’t want to get off on the wrong foot,” Seaman said.

Regina was dominant in every phase.

The Regals were efficient on offense, shooting 45 percent from the floor, committed just eight turnovers and held a 41-21 rebounding edge

“When they missed a shot we cleaned the glass and that was really an emphasis is that we had to be able to board and they were one and done,” Galpin said. “Then we wanted to take care of the ball and execute on offense and all three of those things we did tonight.”

Even with all those numbers the Regals reserved their best work for the defensive end.

Camanche entered fourth in Class 2A in scoring averaging 71.2 points per game but never got going against Regina.

The Indians shot 27 percent from the field and were 3-of-20 from 3-point range while scoring a season-low 34 points, 24 fewer than their previous season low.

We played a really good all-around defensive game, we shared the ball and really played good team basketball on defense,” Miller said. “Our defense really stepped it up tonight and hopefully we can continue that really lock teams down.

Dev Patel and Cameron Soenksen combined for 41 points in the Indians’ win over Regina last season in Camanche.

This year the duo combines to average better than 32 points per game.

Regina held the duo to 8 points on combined 4-of-18 shooting on Friday.

“They have such good shooters and great scorers and our game plan was to try to neutralize Dev and Cameron,” Seaman said. “I think we did a good job of that.”

Miller had 11 of his 14 points in the second half as Regina outscored the Indians 36-12.

Jocoa Kerschen added 11 points and nine rebounds for Regina.

“I think we gave up 12 points in the second half,” Galpin said. “They did a great job and our defense led to some offense for us which was outstanding.”

Regina            21  16  20  16 –  73

Camanche       10  12   8    4  –  34

Regina (73) – Zach Seaman 5-9 3-4 17, Michael Conlon 1-1 0-0 3, Bryce Barnett 0-3 0-0 0, Masen Miller 5-9 1-1 14, Jocoa Kerschen 5-10 0-0 11, Jake Phillips 2-4 1-1 5, Ryne Schooley 3-6 1-2 9, Ashton Cook 0-1 0-0 0, Even Brauns 1-5 0-0 2, Alex Moore 1-2 0-0 2, Nick Wagner 1-1 4-4 6, Blake Berns 2-7 0-0 4, Team 26-58 10-12 73.

Camanche (34) – Carson Seeser 2-3 0-0 5, Caleb Delzell 1-5 5-5 8, Jordan Lawrence 1-3 4-4 6, Dev Patel 1-8 0-0 2, Cameron Soenksen 3-10 0-3 6, Jaxon White 1-2 0-0 3, Evan Hall 0-2 0-0 0, Zayne Feller 0-1 0-0 0, Ethan Buckley 0-1 2-2 2, Calvin Ottens 1-2 0-0 2, Team 10-37 11-14 34.

3-point field goals – ICR 11-21 (Seaman 4-5, Conlon 1-1, Miller 3-7, Kerschen 1-3, Phillips 0-2, Schooley 2-3); CAM 3-20 (Seeser 1-2, Delzell 1-5, Lawrence 0-1, Patel 0-4, Soenksen 0-4, White 1-2, Hall 0-1, Buckley 0-1). Rebounds – ICR 41 (Kerschen, Brauns 7); CAM 21 (Patel 3). Turnovers – ICR 8; CAM 14. Total fouls – ICR 16; CAM 10. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.