Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CORALVILLE – Regina has been excellent in close games this season.

The Regals were 5-1 in single digit games and 3-0 in games decided by four points or less.

Regina let an opportunity to win another tight game slip through its fingers on Tuesday.

The Regals committed 26 turnovers including 16 in the second half in a 58-52 loss to Mid-Prairie in a River Valley Conference South Division matchup at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

“We had too many turnovers,” Regina coach Barry Lehman said. “We had 25 turnovers and it’s hard to win that way. We have to make the routine passes.”

Regina (6-6, 4-2) did enough good things on Tuesday to give itself another opportunity to pull out a close win.

The Regals got 18 points and 11 rebounds from junior Drew Streb, shot 48 percent from the floor and held a 38-32 rebounding edge.

However, it was the turnovers that proved to be costly as Mid-Prairie (7-4, 3-2) used its full-court trapping press to create turnovers which were turned into transition baskets.

“Our passing hurt us tonight,” Streb said. “We have to work on that, we had too many turnovers, we have to be smarter with the ball.”

Regina trailed 27-26 at halftime after closing the first half with a 5-0 run that was capped by a Michael Martin 3-pointer with 19 seconds remaining.

The Regals led for most of third quarter as John Devery had eight of his 10 points in the quarter.

A putback by Devery gave Regina a 44-43 lead entering the final quarter.

“We are taking massive leaps game after game and we are headed in the right direction,” Streb said. “We just have to find a way to squeeze out some wins. A win is a win and that’s all we are trying to do is get wins.”

Mid-Prairie opened the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run, holding the Regals scoreless for more than three minutes to open the final quarter.

Regina had seven turnovers in the final quarter.

“We had quite a few (turnovers) at half court just dribbling into traffic,” Lehman said. “You can’t play into a crowd. Pass, dribble. You can’t play into a crowd.”

Regina trailed just 54-52 after Streb hit a pair of free throws with 2:37 left but wouldn’t score again.

Mid-Prairie scored the final four points, including a putback by Ace Peck with 2:23 left that made it a four-point lead.

Streb had one of the best games of his career with the 18-point, 11-rebound double-double coming on 7-of-15 shooting.

“I think I’ve improved on my shot, I’ve worked a lot on that and my rebounding,” Streb said. “My basketball IQ I think is a lot better and I’ve been playing for a while and am seeing the court better.”

Martin added 11 points and Connor Nicpon had eight for Regina.

Alex Bean had a game-high 21 points for Mid-Prairie while Peck added 11 points.

Regina                        16  10  18   8   –  52

Mid-Praire                15  12  16  15  –  58

Regina (52) – Eddie Petersen 2-7 0-0 5, Michael Martin 4-6 1-2 11, Coleton Daniel 0-1 0-0 0, Connor Nicpon 3-5 0-0 8, Aidan O’Neil 0-1 0-0 0, Andrew Greve 0-1 0-0 0, John Devery 4-6 2-4 10, Drew Streb 7-15 3-3 18, Totals 20-42 6-9 52.

Mid-Prairie (58) – Ace Peck 4-11 0-0 11, Collin Miller 0-2 0-0 0, Camron Pickard 2-12 1-2 5, Alex Bean 8-14 4-4 21, Landon Sullivan 0-1 0-0 0, Brady Weber 1-5 0-0 3, Brock Harland 2-4 1-2 7, Karson Grout 2-3 1-2 5, Dylan Henry 2-9 0-0 4, Beau Flynn 0-0 2-2 2, Shawn Dodds 0-3 0-0 0, Totals 21-64 9-12 58.

3-point field goals – ICR 6-16 (Petersen 1-5, Martin 2-4, Daniel 0-1, Nicpon 2-4, Streb 1-2), M-P 7-20 (Peck 3-4, Pickard 0-4, Bean 1-3, Weber 1-2, Harland 2-4, Henry 0-3). Rebounds – ICR 38 (Streb 11), M-P 32 (Peck 6). Turnovers – ICR 26, M-P 10. Total fouls – ICR 11, M-P 11. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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