Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

 IOWA CITY – Sometimes for a team to reach its goals during a season it has to win a game when it doesn’t play it’s best.

Or even close to it’s best.

River Valley Conference South Division leader Regina found a way to do that on Thursday.

Freshman Morgan Miller hit a go-ahead jumper with 40 seconds left as Class 2A eighth-ranked Regina escaped with a 39-38 win over Tipton (2-13, 2-11) in a rescheduled RVC South Division tilt in Iowa City.

“Shots didn’t go in tonight but defensively we forced turnovers and we played good enough defense,” Regina coach Mary Rogers said. “Sometimes it is just playing good enough. Just one more possession better than the other team and that was tonight.”

Lily Simpson scored six of her game-high 13 points in the fourth quarter as Regina (12-3) overcame 29 percent shooting to complete the season sweep of the Tigers while tightening its grip on the RVC South Division lead.

Regina improved to 12-1 in RVC play and has a one game lead on West Liberty (9-2) and two game lead on West Branch (8-3) in the loss column with six games to play.

“It was an off night for us overall and Tipton really came out ready to play and we knew they would,” Regina junior guard Grace Gaarde said. “We found a way to win and that’s just what we had to do.”

Regina won by 30 at Tipton in the season opener.

The rematch was a different story from the outset.

Regina held Tipton scoreless for nearly five minutes to open the game and scored the first five points but the Tigers closed the quarter on a 6-2 run to pull even at 8-8.

Led by former Regina coach Matt Bolger the Tigers were aggressive on both ends of the court from the opening tip.

“They played really well and we knew that the target on us right now is huge and it’s only going to get bigger as the season comes to a close,” Rogers said. “We were ready to play but Tipton played great. Give them credit.”

Tipton built a 10-point lead with an 11-1 run to open the second quarter, holding Regina without a field goal for a stretch of more than eight minutes from the end of the first to late in the second quarter.

Regina missed its first 12 shots of the second quarter and was 3-of-24 from the field before Gaarde made three-pointers on the final two possessions of the first half.

“I told our girls when shots weren’t falling you just have to keep composure, keep playing and keep shooting and they will fall,” Rogers said. “Tonight, shots really didn’t end up falling but enough of them fell.”

Gaarde sparked Regina to an early lead after halftime coming up with three steals that all led to easy Regina baskets in transition.
While Regina struggled with its shooting, going 15-of-51 from the floor including 3-of-21 from three-point range, Tipton committed 25 turnovers.

“We didn’t hit any threes but we knew if we just played harder we could come back,” Miller said. “At halftime coach told us we needed to rebound, play better defense and just play harder in general.”

Simpson scored back-to-back baskets to close the third quarter to give Regina a 31-25 lead.

Tipton didn’t go away.

The Tigers opened the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 32-31 lead and scored five consecutive points to take a 37-35 lead with 2:46 left.

“We always get down at the beginning of games so we are used to getting ourselves out of holes,” Miller said. “Tonight we had to battle all the way.”

Simpson scored the first six Regina points of the fourth quarter and tied the score at 37-all with a driving layup with 2:09 left.

Tipton took the lead back with a free throw with 1:47 left but wouldn’t score again.

Miller hit what proved to be a game-winning 17-foot jumper with 40 seconds left and Regina forced turnovers on the final two Tiger possessions.

“When I hit that I knew we were going to have to finish the game,” Miller said. “Tipton came out and played hard so I knew they weren’t going to quit. We had to play hard and finish the game. It was tough.”

Gaarde had 10 points and Miller had seven for Regina while Simpson had a double-double grabbing 10 rebounds.

Krya Shaull led Tipton with 9 points and six rebounds and Addie Nerem had eight points and six boards.

Tipton                        8  11  6  13  –  38

Regina                        8   7  16  8   –  39

Tipton (38) – Brenna Wilkins 3-8 0-2 7, Carly Langenberg 2-7 1-2 6, Addie Nerem 4-6 0-0 8, Kyra Shaull 4-6 1-2 9, Delaney Fitch 1-2 0-0 2, Chloe Klabo 3-4 0-1 6, Totals 17-34 2-7 38.

Regina (39) – Alli Dillon 2-5 0-0 4, Grace Gaarde 4-14 0-0 10, Morgan Miller 3-12 0-1 7, Alli Clark 1-7 3-6 5, Hope Simpson 0-3 0-0 0, Lily Simpson 5-10 3-4 13, Totals 15-51 3-4 39.

3-point field goals – ICR 3-21 (Gaarde 2-10, Miller 1-7, Clark 0-3, H. Simpson 0-1), TIP 2-5 (Wilkins 1-1, Langenberg 1-4). Rebounds – ICR 23 (L. Simpson 10), TIP Nerem, Shaull 6). Turnovers – ICR 7, TIP 25. Total fouls – ICR 11, TIP 13. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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