Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Sam Greving spent the summer and all preseason planning on playing her first season at Regina opposite all-stater Alex Wiese in the post.  

That plan went out the window less than one full game into the season when Wiese went down with a knee injury in the season opener.

With Wiese and her team-leading 15.4 points and 10.6 rebounds out of the lineup the Regals had to develop a new plan quickly.

“After Alex got hurt we had to re-evaluate how we are doing things and we had to change some things,” Regina coach Jeff Wallace explained.

Greving has been a big part of the new plan for Regina.

The junior center has scored double figures in seven consecutive games and is averaging a career-high 13.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game on the season.  

“I was thrown off when Alex got hurt because we were expecting to have two posts inside,” Greving said. “It pushed me to step up even more and try to fill her shoes even though they are really hard to fill.”

Greving had five points and six rebounds in her Regina debut and had four points and eight rebounds in her first game without the 6-foot Wiese in the lineup.

In that game, a 42-34 loss to Wilton, Greving said she felt the pressure of trying to replace the production Wiese brought to the lineup.

Since that loss Greving stopped thinking about the pressure or the production and went back to playing basketball.

“I was trying to get used to the team and I was putting a lot of pressure on myself,” Greving said. “After that I said, ‘it’s alright, I’ve been playing since second grade’ and I just realized it’s all in my head I just have to play.”  

The results have followed.

Greving is averaging 15.7 points and 7.3 rebounds over the last seven games and has scored more than 15 points four times during that span.

“She is starting to be more patient,” Wallace said. “She is a really coachable and teachable kid and she wants to get better.”

Greving has been even better of late.

Over the final four games of 2018 she averaged 16.5 points and 9.3 rebounds and had a pair of double-doubles.

She posted a career-high 23 points in a win over Durant and had a career-best 16 rebounds in a loss to Cascade.

“I worked really hard all summer to get up to this point,” Greving said. “I think I’m just being more confident on the offensive end both in the post and shooting the 3.”  

A 3.4 point per game scoring in in 45 career games at City High Greving has ranks second on the team this season at 13.2 points per game.

She is shooting a team-high 44 percent from the field including a team-leading 39 percent from behind the arc, an area that Greving spent considerable time on during the summer months.

“Over the summer I worked on shooting a lot of 3s because in the past I hadn’t shot them as much,” Greving said. “My AAU coach told us we had to make 300 threes a day. Now, that’s kind of hard to do that when you haven’t shot a bunch of 3s so I tried to do that the best I could.”  

Greving also leads Regina with 7.2 rebounds per game on the season and ranks third on the team with 13 steals.

“She loves basketball and she has been a big inside force for us and I think she can even get better,” Wallace said. “I am really excited about having her on the team and just great attitude.”