Pat Harty

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The Regina girls basketball team tied a school record by scoring 35 points in the second quarter of a Class 2-A regional quarterfinal against Wapello on Tuesday.

The Regals also had three players who scored in double figures, shot 50 percent from the field and made 10 3-point baskets.

But it was Regina’s suffocating defense that probably stood out the most during the 79-24 drubbing at Regina.

“No doubt about it,” said Regina coach Jeff Wallace. “In that second quarter we really just kicked it in defensively. We started being really active with our hands and getting lots of deflections and lots of layups and just played really hard and together and we knocked down shots.

“And when you play really hard defensively, it makes it a lot easier for those shots to go in.”

Seventh-ranked Regina improved to 19-4 and will face West Branch in a regional semifinal on Friday at Regina.

Senior guard Lauren Gaarde only attempted one shot and didn’t score in Tuesday’s victory. But she made her presence felt on defense by forcing numerous steals and deflections that often led to easy baskets in transition for her teammates.

Regina outscored Wapello 35-5 in the second quarter and led 56-13 at halftime. The Indians only attempted 12 shots in the first two quarters combined and made five.

“We’ve been really working hard on our defense and help side and just playing together as a team and focusing a lot on defense,” Gaarde said. “Mostly this past week.”

Junior Kennedy Wallace, who is Jeff Wallace’s daughter, led Regina with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field. She also made five 3-point baskets.

Junior center Alex Wiese scored 16 points and made all but two of her 10 field-goal attemtps, while senior guard Mary Crompton finished with 15 points, all of which came in the first half.

Kennedy Wallace made a 3-point basket to give Regina a 50-point lead at 68-18 in the third quarter.

Wapello was led in scoring buy senior Tiffany Parsons with seven points. The Indians scored 11 fewer points overall than Regina scored in the second quarter alone.

Jeff Wallace said his team has benefitted from playing a tough schedule that included a loss to Class 5A top-ranked City High.

“We had four non-conference games and we tried to schedule up,” Jeff Wallace said. “That was really important for us. We do that with the idea of preparing for the tournament time. Teams that maybe are bigger and more athletic than us and we’ve got to find out ways to grind it.

“Last year, we never played from behind. This year we’ve had to be in a lot of games where we played from behind. And I think that’s really helped our growth.”

Regina bolted to an 8-0 lead in Tuesday’s game and never played from behind.

Gaarde agreed with her head coach that Regina’s difficult schedule is now paying dividends.

“It helps a lot because even though the games we came up short it shows that we can play with harder competition and it gives us a lot of confidence in ourselves and now in these postseason games that we can go up against the hard teams and we’ll be fine,” Gaarde said.

Wapello   8   5   6   5  –  24

Regina   21  35  16  7  –  79

Wapello (24) – Sammy Ewart 0-2 1-2 1. Eryka Dickey 2-4 2-3 6, Tiffany Parsons 3-8 1-4 7, Addisyn Lolling 2-4 0-0 5, Sadie Burke 0-1 0-0 0, Madyson Reid 0-2 0-0 0, Holly Massner 1-2 0-0 2, Emma Reid 1-4 1-3 3, Denalyn Lanz 0-0 0-0 0, Brekyn Mears 0-0 0-0 0, Toni Bohlen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 9-27 4-11 24

Regina (79) – Mary Crompton 5-13 2-2 15, Lauren Gaarde 0-1 0-0 0, Greyson Dumont 4-6 0-0 9, Kennedy Wallace 7-12 1-1 20, Alex Wiee 8-10 0-0 16, Alexa lehman 3-8 0-0 7, Elly Gahan 3-6 0-0 6, Katie Dunn 0-1 0-0 0, Annie Gahan 2-4 2-5 6, Claire Gaarde 0-0 0-0 0, Madeline Hamilton 0-1 0-0 0, Stephanie Stenger 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 32-64 5-8 79.

3-point goals – Wapello 1 (Lolling); Regina 10 (Kennedy Wallace 5, Crompton 3, Lehman, Dumont). Fouls – Wapello 5, Regina 11.