Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – It took a little time for Solon to get going on both ends of the court on Saturday.

Once junior guard Tate McColllum got the Solon offense on track his teammates took care of the rest on the defensive end.

McCollum exploded for 19 of his game-high 31 points in the second quarter as Solon (5-0) erased an early deficit and rolled to a 63-42 win over Regina in a non-conference contest in Solon.

“Once he gets rolling it seems like everything gets rolling for us,” Solon coach Jared Galpin said. “He got rolling in the second quarter.”

Regina (3-1) scored the first nine points of the game and led 14-9 after the first quarter.

McCollum provided a quick offensive spark in the second

The junior guard had 10 points during a 12-0 Spartan run to open the second quarter.

McCollum had 16 consecutive Solon points as the Spartans built a 30-21 lead it would never give up.

“I just want to take over at that point,” McCollum said. “When I hit a couple in a row I want to try to take over.”
McCollum hit all seven of his second-quarter field goal attempts, including four 3-pointers, and had 24 of the Spartans’ 32 first-half points.

“When he hits two in a row you know the third one is going up,” Galpin said. “He just brings us a different dimension.”

The did its job defensively after halftime to preserve the lead.

Solon limited Regina to 36 percent shooting in the second half and put the game away by holding the Regals to just five points over the final 6:18.

“Simon (Einwalter) and Tanner (Heims) after that first wave I thought they did a really good job and Wallce and Litton are really good so you aren’t going to win every one of those battles but I thought for the most part they won a lot of those battles,” Galpin said. “The message was we had to keep them off the glass and I thought we were really tenacious on the glass.”

Wallace had 18 points and seven rebounds and Litton added 11 points and nine boards for Regina.

However the duo was held to a combined 16 points in the second half as Solon pulled away.

Regina had a 31-29 rebounding edge but shot just 35 percent from the floor including 1-of-16 from 3-point range.

“We are really connected and our defense is really high-level right now,” McCollum said. “We did a good job of helping in the paint and doubling the bigs.”

Grant Gordon added 11 points for Solon as the Spartans shot 47 percent from the field.

“We moved the ball really well and that helped a lot when you shoot a lot of threes,” McCollum said. “We are really connected.”

Regina                        14  7   12   9   –  42

Solon                          9  23  11  20  –  63

Regina (42) – Emmett Burke 0-5 0-0 0, Jack O’Leary 1-1 0-0 2, Drew Greve 2-4 0-0 4, Tate Wallace 6-12 6-8 18, Aiden Gaffey 0-1 0-0 0, Miles Nuzback 1-4 0-0 3, Will Litton 5-13 1-2 11, Ben Wade 2-8 0-0 4, Totals 17-48 7-10 42.

Solon (63) – Tate McCollum 11-22 4-6 31, Maddox Kelley 1-3 0-0 2, Grant Gordon 4-7 2-2 11, Kaden Hoeper 2-2 0-0 4, Luke Merrick 4-10 0-0 8, Ethan Ulch 0-3 0-0 0, Simon Einwalter 1-3 0-0 2, Tanner Heims 2-3 1-1 5, Totals 25-53 7-9 63.

3-point field goal – ICR 1-16 (Burke 0-3, Greve 0-1, Gaffey 0-1, Nuzback 1-3, Litton 0-6, Wade 0-2), SOL 6-25 (McCollum 5-16, Kelley 0-2, Gordon 1-1, Merrick 0-3, Ulch 0-1, Einwalter 0-2). Rebounds – ICR 31 (Litton 9), SOL 29 (Gordon 7). Turnovers – ICR 17, SOL 10. Total fouls – ICR 15, SOL 15. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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