Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – This time Regina wanted to leave no doubt.

Eight days after closing the regular season with a controversial one-point loss at Wilton, the Regals opened the Class 2A boys basketball playoffs against those same Beavers.

This outcome will not be debated.

“We were definitely motivated coming into the game,” Regina freshman Tate Wallace said after the Regals shot past Wilton, 68-57, in a district semifinal game Thursday night at Regina High School. “We really wanted this game and we knew we couldn’t let that happen again and our season would be over. So we knew coming into this game, we had to come out on top.”

The contention over the Feb. 7 contest at Wilton centered around a single point.

That night, the Regals retreated to the halftime locker room on the wrong end of a 39-36 deficit, but emerged from the break with the scoreboard displaying a score of 40-36.

A postgame review of the game film revealed that 39-36 was the correct halftime score, which

produced frustration after what ultimately became a 71-70 loss and a split in the two-game regular season series.

“Both games had been back-and-forth games,” first-year Regina Coach Paul Rundquist said. “I figured tonight would be the same. We did a nice job finding the gaps of the zone (defense), taking our time, which is not always easy to do. One thing this group of kids has done since I got here is they have accepted coaching. I am really proud of them for that.”

The victory was just the second in six games for Regina (15-6), which will travel to Muscatine on Tuesday for a 2A district final against Alburnett (19-3), winner of 15 games in a row and the only team to defeat 1A No. 1 North Linn this season.

“They’re good,” Rundquist said. “They’re real good. They are 19-3. They beat North Linn early in the season, so they are a solid team. But you are going to be playing solid teams at this stage. We know that. We’ll practice hard these next few days and hopefully give ourselves a shot.”

After leading by as many as eight points in the first quarter, Regina yielded a 19-4 burst that gave the Beavers a 23-16 edge early in the second frame.

The Regals provided a strong response by scoring 15 of the final 22 points of the first half, then beginning the second with a 10-0 eruption that netted Regina a 41-30 lead.

“We came out in the second half and played really great defense,” Regina senior Michael Martin said. “We got stops. That motivated our offense to just get even better looks. Have more patience and knock down shots.”

Martin – a unanimous first-team selection to the River Valley all-conference team this week – knocked down plenty of shots against Wilton.

Martin used a big second half – 19 points and five 3-pointers – to help the Regals push their lead to as large as 13 points in the fourth quarter.

Martin finished the game with 27 points with seven of Regina’s 10 three-point baskets.

“It was really the looks my teammates were giving me,” said Martin, who plans to enter Iowa State University’s aerospace program this fall. “We knew we had to get the ball inside to open up the shots on the perimeter. So we got the ball inside, all the guards moved outside and my teammates were getting me great looks. I was knocking them down.”

The Wilton duo of freshman Bryer Putman and senior Landyn Putman entered Thursday averaging more than 37 combined points per contest.

In addition to limiting Wilton to just 10 third-quarter points, the Regina defense held both Putman brothers below their respective scoring averages.

“They are great players,” said Wallace, a former Amateur Athletic Union teammate of the Putman brothers. “We tried to zone in on them when they got the ball, because obviously they can shoot. They can do everything. We really tried to come in next to them when they got the

ball.”

Wallace finished with 10 points, while teammates Eddie Petersen, Drew Streb and reserve Lucas Schechinger each chipped in eight.

Martin and Petersen both corralled five rebounds.

Wilton ends its season at 15-8.

Wilton (57) – Oaklan Jirak 2 2-2 8, Casen Reid 4 3-3 13, Bryer Putman 7 0-1 15, Landyn Putman 7 4-5 19, Briggs Oien 1 0-0 2, Cade Souhrada 0 0-0 0, Kale Caffery 0 0-0 0, Totals 21 9-11 57.

Regina (68) – Eddie Petersen 3 0-0 8, Connor Nicpon 0 0-0 0, Michael Martin 10 0-0 27, Tate Wallace 2 6-10 10, Drew Streb 2 4-5 8, Will Litton 3 1-1 7, Lucas Schechinger 3 1-2 8, Andrew Greve 0 0-0 0, Totals 23 12-18 68.

Wilton              15  15  10  17  –  57

Regina             16  15  18  19  –  68

Three-point goals – WIL 6 (Jirak 2, Reid 2, B. Putman 1, L. Putman 1). ICR 10 (Martin 7, Petersen 2, Schechinger 1). Rebounds – WIL 18 (Reid 6); ICR 22 (Martin 5, Petersen 5). Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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