Second-ranked Regina Rallies Past Solon
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
IOWA CITY – The latest win for red-hot Regina was likely the greatest victory of the season for the second-ranked Regals.
That distinction comes as much from how Regina got its eighth straight win on Saturday as who the win was over.
Regina rallied from an 11-points first-half deficit and survived a more than six-minute scoring drought in a come-from-behind 57-52 win over Solon on Saturday in a non-conference matinee in Iowa City.
“I think we proved something to ourselves with that win,” Regina coach Mary Rogers said. “We had to know that if we were in a deficit against a talented team, down eight at half, not scoring a lot in the second quarter that we could bounce back. Today we showed we could do that.”
Class 2A second-ranked Regina (17-1) got 47 combined points from its backcourt duo of Addie McLaughlin and Morgan Miller while pushing its win streak to eight.
The Regals trailed by five points with under five minutes to play but closed the game on a 9-2 run while stopping a four-game losing skid to Solon that included an 84-42 loss last season.
“We’ve only lost one game this season and after that loss we didn’t want to lose again this season,” Miller said. “We’ve lost to Solon every year I’ve been in high school, so I know the seniors came into today really wanting to get this win.”
McLaughlin scored 10 of her game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter and Miller made all eight of her free throw attempts in the fourth quarter as the duo scored all 18 of Regina’s fourth-quarter points.
McLaughlin gave Regina its first lead of the second half with a conventional 3-point play with 3:22 remaining.
Miller scored the final six Regina points, all from the free throw line as the Regals outscored Solon (8-9) 11-3 over the final six minutes.
“I thought Addie made some really difficult, big shots,” Rogers said. “It was a back-and-forth aggressive game and we did need a game like this to keep setting what our standard is to get to the next one.”
Solon held Regina scoreless for more than six minutes during a 15-0 run to open the second quarter that gave the Spartans a 29-18 lead.
The Spartans led 31-23 at the half and 39-39 with just over four minutes to play in the third quarter.
Regina closed the gap to 44-39 after three quarters before making its late push behind a stingy defensive effort.
“When our offense isn’t working the best we just have to focus on defense,” Regina senior Ella McLaughlin said. “We all trusted each other and it worked.”
Regina held Solon without a point from the 5:23 mark of the fourth quarter until Kobi Lietz made a layup with 6.2 seconds remaining.
Solon was 3-of-14 from the field in the fourth quarter, including 1-of-7 from 3-point range and missed 11 of its final 12 field goal attempts.
“Our coaches harp on us all the time that we have so many offensive weapons but what we really need to do is lock in on defense,” Miller said. “We scouted them really well and we knew what we had to do on defense and we were able to get stops and run our offense.”
Miller finished with 22 points and five rebounds for Regina while Ella McLaughlin had four points and Caitlin Martin had three for the Regals.
Freshman Beckett Kruse led Solon with a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Delainey Durr and Lietz each had 12 points for the Spartans and Jerzey Haluska had nine points and eight rebounds for Solon.
Solon 14 17 13 8 – 52
Regina 18 5 16 18 – 57
Solon (52) – Kobi Lietz 4-12 3-6 12, Delainey Durr 5-11 0-0 12, Laney Johnson 0-3 0-0 0, Quinn Armentrout 2-8 0-0 4, Laeni Hinkle 0-2 0-0 0, Jerzey Haluska 3-4 1-4 9, Beckett Kruse 4-11 7-8 15, Totals 18-51 11-18 52.
Regina (57) – Morgan Miller 6-13 10-10 22, Ella Keune 1-1 0-0 2, Caitlin Martin 1-5 0-0 3, Ella McLaughlin 2-5 0-1 4, Maggie Sueppel 0-1 0-0 0, Addie McLaughlin 10-16 3-3 25, Adalee Klein 0-4 1-2 1, Totals 20-45 14-16 57.
3-point field goals – Solon 5-23 (Lietz 1-5, Durr 2-8, Johnson 0-2, Armentrout 0-4, Hinkle 0-2, Haluska 2-2), Regina 3-8 (Miller 0-3, Martin 1-2, E. McLaughlin 0-1, A. McLaughlin 2-2). Rebounds – Solon 37 (Kruse 12), Regina 35 (Klein 8). Total fouls – Solon 11, Regina 13. Turnovers – Solon 16, Regina 11. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – Solon (Bench)
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