Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – As a freshman last season Morgan Miller mostly played understudy to her older Regina backcourt mates Alli Clark and Grace Gaarde.

This season Morgan is turning into a full-fledged star.

Morgan poured in a game-high 26 points on Tuesday as Class 2A eighth-ranked Regina rolled to a 78-23 win over Durant (0-3) in a River Valley Conference South Division contest in Iowa City.

“I definitely feel a lot more confident this season,” Miller said. “It’s not that I wasn’t confident last year but after playing as a freshman last year I’m not as nervous and I have a lot more confidence.”

The 26 points for Miller on Tuesday came after the sophomore guard scored a career-high 31 in a win at Camanche on Friday.

Five games into her sophomore season Miller is averaging a team-high 19.6 points per game.

“I think confidence has been big for her, she is not a freshman anymore,” Regina coach Mary Rogers said. “I think her confidence has grown and I think just her court vision in general has improved. She is getting points but her distributing has improved.”

Miller was impressive during her debut season last year.

The 5-foot-5 point guard averaged 10 points, 4.1 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game as a freshman.

What Miller did best during her freshman season was listen and learn, mostly from Clark and Gaarde who like Miller had big roles early in their careers.

“I’ve definitely learned a lot from those two, they are really good role models,” Miller said. “They have taught me that even when you are having a rough game you still have to keep your head up, you have to keep shooting and encourage your teammates. I’ve learned a lot from them.”

A more experienced Miller has combined with Gaarde and Clark to give Regina one of the best backcourts in 2A this season.

Clark had 20 points on Tuesday as Regina improved to 4-1 with its second consecutive win following a loss to 3A fifth-ranked Benton Community last Thursday.

“I just think that we all work really well together,” Clark said. “We have worked well together ever since we’ve been playing together. We have good communication and we flow well together.”

Clark and Miller helped Regina race to an early 27-5 lead on Tuesday.

The two combined for 23 first-quarter points as Regina built an insurmountable early lead.

“I think one of the main differences is that we came out with more intensity,” Clark said. “We pushed the ball we got our offense running better than we did last week.”

Regina made its first five field goals of the second quarter, all 3-pointers coming from five different players and pushed the lead to 46-17 by halftime.

“We knew they were going to come out and play a zone, they are a scrappy team but I think the big thing was we found the gaps and attacked,” Rogers said. “We made so many extra passes. We got paint touches and got open looks and hit them.”

Miller made four 3-pointers and Clark had two as Regina finished 13-of-21 from beyond the 3-point line while shooting 61 percent from the field.

Ella McLaughlin had nine points on 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range while Morgan Squiers had six points and Grace Gaarde had five.

“It’s hard for teams to focus on just one of us when all three of us are a big threat and so are the other girls on the court,” Clark said. “It’s hard to stop all of us.”

Isabelle DeLong had 19 points and seven rebounds to lead Durant.

Regina                        27  19  13  19  – 78

Durant                         5   12   5    1   – 23

Regina (78) – Alli Clark 8-12 2-2 20, Grace Gaarde 2-6 0-0 5, Ella McLaughlin 3-4 0-0 9, Caitlin Martin 1-2 0-0 2, Morgan Miller 11-19 0-0 26, Morgan Squiers 2-3 0-0 6, Lucy Nolte 2-2 0-0 5, Madelyn Greve 2-2 0-0 4, Jillian Panther 0-1 1-2 1, Totals 31-51 3-4 78.

Durant (23) – Olivia Alpen 0-3 0-0 0, Hannah Peel 1-1 2, Kierra Hahn 0-3 0-0 0, Avery Paper 0-2 0-0 0, Isabelle DeLong 7-19 2-7 19, Kiyah Daily 0-1 0-0 0, Katelyn Toft 0-1 0-2 0, Emma Meincke 1-1 0-0 2, Kaetlyn Hansel 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 9-33 2-9 23.

3-point field goals – ICR 13-21 (Clark 2-5, Gaarde 1-1, McLaughlin 3-4, Martin 0-1, Miller 4-7, Squiers 2-2, Nolte 1-1), DUR 3-12 (Alpen 0-1, Paper 0-1, DeLong 3-10). Rebounds – ICR 32 (Greve 7), DUR 18 (DeLong 7). Turnovers – ICR 11, DUR 23. Total fouls – ICR 11, DUR 8. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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