Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Regina has played efficient offense and been sound in its half-court defense while opening the season with four consecutive wins.

What Regina has done best during its 4-0 start is pretty simple, let its athletes be athletes.

“We have really athletic kids so we have changed a few things to try to take advantage of that,” Second-year Regina head coach Mary Halvorson said. “We want them to play athletically in transition offense, getting deflections and steals and going the other way.”

Regina put its athleticism on display Friday forcing 22 turnovers in a 57-19 win over Camanche (1-4) in a River Valley Conference cross-divisional matchup in Iowa City.

Senior Annie Gahan led three Regina players in double figures with 16 points as Regina built a 46-7 halftime advantage while improving to 4-0 on the season and in RVC play.

Sophomore point guard Grace Gaarde added 11 points and Hope Simpson had 10 points as Regina shot 47 percent from the field.

“We are all pretty quick and (coach) really wants us to get out and run,” Gahan said. “We’ve really been using our quickness and our athleticism to our advantage this year I think.”

Gahan and Gaarde are the catalysts for a Regina team that uses its speed and quickness equally well on both ends of the court.

Regina used a trapping full-court press to force 15 Camanche turnovers in the opening half, including eight in a first quarter that saw Regina jump to a 20-0 lead.

“We love pushing the ball,” Gaarde said. “Running up and down the court and getting fast breaks is what we want to try to do.”

Regina was equally effective with half court pressure defense, jumping passing lanes and turning steals into easy transition opportunities.

The athleticism for Regina comes with some height. Lily Simpson is 5-foot-11, Gahan and fellow senior guard Abby Clark are 5-foot-7.

That allows the Regals to switch screens in its pressure half court man-to-man defense as Gaarde provides ball pressure.

On Friday that combination was more than Camanche could handle.

“We’ve been working on our press but it is still pretty new to us especially to the girls that didn’t play as much last year,” Gahan said. “I think that our half-court defense is really strong. We really worked at practice on communicating all the switches and I think that played a big role in how our defense worked tonight.”

Regina held the Indians to just 14 shot attempts in the first half while forcing 15 turnovers.

Camanche shot 30 percent from the field and had scoring droughts of seven minutes, three minutes and four minutes in the first half.

“We’ve really hammered it in these last couple of days that we have to talk and communicate and switch, for the most part one through five we can switch and that’s the way we are going to play defensively,” Halvorson said. “We want to deny and get in passing lanes and switch when we need to.”

Gahan had 14 of her game-high 16 in the opening half while Gaarde had nine and Simpson eight as Regina built its 39-point halftime edge.

“You never know how a game is going to start,” Gaarde said. “We certainly didn’t underestimate them and we were ready for anything and kept playing has hard as we could.”

Abby Clark finished with nine points as nine Regina players scored in the game.

“It’s definitely fun playing this way,” Halvorson said. “I think tonight showed how athletic we can be.”

Regina                        23  23  5  6  –  57

Camanche                  2    5   4  8  –  19

Regina (57) – Berlyn O’Connor 1-1 0-0 2, Grace Gaarde 4-4 1-3 11, Annie Gahan 7-12 1-1 16, Christelle Tungu 0-0 0-2 0, Abby Clark 3-9 1-1 9, Alli Clark 0-3 1-2 1, Lily Simpson 1-4 1-2 3, Hope Simpson 4-8 0-1 10, Morgan Squiers 1-3 0-0 2, Alli Dillon 1-2 1-2 3, Emma Panther 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 22-47 6-14 57.

Camanche (19) – Danika Dodson 3-4 0-0 7, Celina Hermann 0-1 0-0 0, Maddie Michels 2-3 0-0 5, Aubrey Carstensen 2-10 0-0 4, Erin Short 0-2 0-0 0, Naomi Duke 1-4 0-0 3, Kennedy DenBesten 0-1 0-0 0, Bridgett Hundley 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 8-27 0-0 19.

3-point field goals – ICR 7-17 (Gaarde 2-2, Gahan 1-4, Ab. Clark 2-6, Al. Clark 0-2, H. Simpson 2-2, Squiers 0-1), CAM 3-10 (Dodson 1-1, Hermann 0-1, Michels 1-1, Carstensen 0-1, Short 0-1, Dukes 1-3, DenBesten 0-1, Hundley 0-1). Rebounds – ICR 25 (L. Simpson 7), CAM 20 (Carstensen). Turnovers – ICR 4, CAM 22. Total fouls – ICR 9, CAM 9. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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