Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – No basketball game can be solely determined by one specific statistical category.

Still, it’s tough to look at Thursday’s Class 2A semifinal between Unity Christian and Regina and not lock in on the 3-point shooting as the deciding factor.

Second-ranked Unity Christian made 10 3-pointers while Regina went 2-of-22 from beyond the 3-point line as the Knights pulled away for a 72-46 win at Casey’s Center in Des Moines.

“Credit to them, they hit their shots really well,” Regina junior Will Litton said. “They were driving gaps really well, they did a lot of things really well. Today they were just the better team.”

Senior guard Dylan Bosma headlined the Unity Christian 3-point barrage.

Bosma went 9-of-12 from beyond the arc on his way to a game-high 27 points as Unity Christian (24-2) shot 61 percent from the field.

The 9-of-12 3-point performance from Bosma came after he missed all five of his 3-point attempts in a quarterfinal win over Western Christian on Wednesday.

“Shots weren’t falling yesterday, they were closing out on me hard yesterday so I had to get it to other people, get it to the hot hand and let others do it and be patient and today I was more open and when you are open it’s a lot more fun to shoot,” Bosma said. “We were swinging the ball around, getting open shots for everybody and when it’s your turn you let it fly.”

Bosma led four Unity Christian players in double figures as the Knights advanced to play top-ranked Carroll Kuemper (24-3) in the 2A title game on Friday at 7 p.m.

Austin Wieringa had 14 points, Tyce Van Donge had 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Keagen Winterfeld had 12 points for Unity Christian.

“They are hard to guard,” Regina coach Paul Rundquist said. “They have guys that are all the same length and all basketball players. You could just see how fluid they move and they attack well off the dribble. They have four guys averaging double figures that all can shoot the three and that in itself is difficult to guard and give them credit, when they are hitting 3s to beat they are going to be tough to beat.”

Third-ranked Regina (23-2) took its only lead of the game at 9-8 on a Ben Wade jumper with 2:05 remaining in the first quarter.

Unity Christian closed the first quarter on a 4-0 run to take a 12-9 lead and slowed pulled away.

“Overall, they just played better than us,” Wade said. “They got off to a good start in the first quarter, they got a lot of offensive rebounds in the first half.”

The Knights packed their zone into the paint in an effort to slow the Regina post trio of Litton, Wade and Tate Wallace and Regina couldn’t find an offensive rhythm.

Regina shot 38 percent from the field and was 1-of-8 from 3-point range in the first half as Unity Christian built a 34-22 lead.

“They have some big guys. Strong guys, tall guys,” Bosma said. “We wanted to make them beat us from the 3-point line, still closing out on them hard but packing the lane and not just giving them easy buckets.”

Unity Christian put the game away in the third quarter, going 4-of-7 from 3-point range and outscoring the Regals 21-9 in the third quarter.

“We got impatient,” Rundquist said. “We got behind and we didn’t really face adversity very well. Not very many times this year had that happened and we just really got sped up. Credit them, again, that’s a really good team.”

Wade led Regina with 21 points and seven rebounds while Litton added 14 points and six rebounds.

Wallace added six points and three rebounds for Regina.

“Today they were the most physical team,” Litton said. “We should have handled it better but credit to them for being more physical than us.”

Unity Christian         12  22  21  17  –  72

Regina                        9   13   9   15  –  46

Unity Christian (72) – Dylan Bosma 9-15 0-0 27, Austin Wieringa 6-7 2-3 14, Keagen Winterfeld 3-7 5-6 12, Tyce Van Donge 3-4 7-8 13, Brayden Harskamp 1-1 2-2 4, Adler VanEssen 0-1 0-0 0, Micah Van Donge 0-1 0-0 0, Kash Huisman 0-1 0-0 0, Cael Millard 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 23-38 16-21 72.

Regina (46) – Drew Greve 0-2 0-0 0, Tate Wallace 2-6 2-4 6, Miles Nuzback 0-6 0-0 0, Will Litton 6-15 1-1 14, Ben Wade 10-14 1-2 21, Corbin Daniel 0-1 0-0 0, Emmett Burke 0-3 0-0 0, Jack O’Leary 1-6 0-0 2, Caiden Lehman 0-1 0-0 0, Aiden Gaffey 1-2 0-0 3, Totals 20-56 4-7 46.

3-point field goal – UC 10-18 (Bosma 9-13, Winterfeld 1-3, VanEssen 0-1, M. Van Donge 0-1), ICR (Greve 0-1, Nuzback 0-3, Litton 1-7, Daniel 0-1, Burke 0-2, O’Leary 0-5, Lehman 0-1, Gaffey 1-2). Rebounds – UC 28 (T. Van Donge 8), ICR 28 (Wade 7). Assists – UC 13 (T. Van Donge 6), ICR 7 (Greve 2, Wallace 2, Burke 2). Turnovers – UC 10, ICR 14. Total fouls – UC 11, ICR 19. Fouled out – ICR (Nuzback). Technical fouls – None.

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