Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Regina has its sights set on some pretty big goals over the next few weeks in the postseason.

But first the Regals had to take care of some business in the regular season finale.

Class 2A seventh-ranked Regina locked up its first outright River Valley Conference South Division since 2018 with a 41-31 win over rival West Branch on Tuesday in the regular season finale for both teams in Iowa City.

“It was our first goal,” Regina senior Alli Dillon said of winning the conference. “Since the beginning of the season we wanted to win the conference.”

Regina had a shot to clinch the crown on Friday but fell to West Liberty at home.

The Regals wouldn’t let another opportunity get away on Tuesday.

Regina broke open a close game with an 11-2 run to close the third quarter on its way to completing the season sweep of defending South Division champion West Branch.

“We had a couple of chances and not every team gets a couple of chances to outright win it and we had another chance, another bounce back and we capitalized on the opportunity and I couldn’t be happier or prouder of them,” Regina coach Mary Rogers said. “Their work ethic and how they battled it’s been a great season with the biggest part of the season coming up in the postseason.”

Regina closed the regular season 17-4 and an impressive 17-2 in RVC play, a game in front of West Liberty in the South Division standings.

The South Division title comes after Regina finished third in the South Division standings last season and is the first time since winning the division in 2018 that the Regals have finished above third.

“As a coach it was at the top of my list since year one,” Rogers said. “This is huge because our conference is so good. Night in and night out you are preparing a scout of a good team.”

West Branch (14-7, 12-6) trailed just 15-11 at the half and was down 17-14 after a Kylie Pickett three-pointer with 6:33 left in the third quarter.
Regina got things rolling shortly after.

Alli Clark scored twice in transition as Regina ratcheted up its defensive pressure forcing the Bears into eight third-quarter turnovers.

“Our defense is a really big part of our game so I think it really set the tone when we got stops on defense,” Clark said. “We have goals to get three stops in a row on defense and when we did that it set the tone.”

Regina outscored West Branch 11-2 over the final 3:36 of the third quarter with junior point guard Grace Gaarde twice turning steals into transition layups.

“That really gave us momentum when we were able to push the ball down the court,” Clark said. “I think that really helped us get a lead and get excited.”

West Branch wouldn’t get closer than nine points the rest of the way.

The Bears got 10 points and 11 rebounds from Delaynie Luneckas and eight points and six rebounds from Sadie Smith but shot just 28 percent from the floor.

“They are so tough to guard because of who they have, obviously they have some studs on the floor,” Rogers said. “I think our game plan leading up to it, we stuck to it and we battled inside and we just tried to make things tough. That was the message and we made it tough enough to get stops when we needed it.”

Regina didn’t have a player score in double figures but had five players with at least five points.

Lily Simpson had nine points while Clark, Dillon and Gaarde all had seven.

“Some teams have one or two players that score but we have five girls on the court all the time that can score,” Clark said. “We trust each other and we move the ball and that helps us a lot.”

Freshman Morgan Miller had five points and Clark had a team-high 10 rebounds.

“It was so much fun,” Dillon said. “I’m just really happy that we won. Coming off the loss last game this was a really fun game and a good way to finish it off.”

Regina                        10  5  17  9  –  41

West Branch              8   3   9  11 –  31

Regina (41) – Alli Dillon 3-7 0-0 7, Grade Gaarde 3-9 1-2 7, Morgan Miller 2-8 1-4 5, Ali Clark 3-7 1-3 7, Hope Simpson 1-7 2-4 4, Gabby Sueppel 1-1 0-0 2, Lily Simpson 2-6 5-6 9, Totals 15-45 10-19 41.

West Branch (31) – Sadie Smith 2-7 4-4 8, Alyse Klinkkammer 0-2 0-0 0, Kylie Pickett 2-3 0-0 5, Delaynie Luneckas 4-9 2-4 10, August Palmer 2-12 2-2 6, Madelyn Stout 1-6 0-0 2, Totals 11-39 8-10 31.

3-point field goals – ICR 1-11 (Dillon 1-4, Gaarde 0-1, Miller 0-4, Clark 0-1, H. Simpson 0-1), WB 1-14 (Klinkkammer 0-2, Pickett 1-2, Luneckas 0-2, Palmer 0-4, Stout 0-4). Rebounds – ICR 30 (Clark 10), WB 33 (Luneckas 11). Turnovers – ICR 11, WB 19. Total fouls – ICR 11, WB 15. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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