Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TROY MILLS – Jeff Wallace and the rest of the Regina coaching staff cooked up a game plan for Friday’s regional semifinal with eighth-ranked North Linn and the Regals executed it to near perfection.

North Linn sophomore Ellie Ware threw a wrench into the plan.

Ware scored a career-high 32 points, including 22 in the first half as North Linn (20-1) escaped with a 50-39 win over Regina in a Class 2A, Region 5 semifinal in Troy Mills.

North Linn advanced to face No. 10 Wilton (21-2) in the Region 5 title game Monday at Cedar Rapids Prairie while Regina closed its season at 10-11.

“We knew we had to muddy up the game and we played the percentages,” Wallace said. “They have great shooters on the perimeter and we left Ware open in the middle and we were going to take our chances with that. Our girls followed the game plan to perfection it just didn’t turn out our way.”

The plan for Regina was to limit the Lynx high-powered perimeter trio of Grace Flanagan, Abby Flanagan and Kylie Kurt with its 1-2-2 zone. That was a success.  

Regina held the high-scoring Lynx that rank sixth in the state in scoring to a season-low point total that was more than 21 points lower than their average.

Together the Flanagans and Kurt averaged 49 points per game this season but scored just 18 Friday on 5-for-28 shooting.

What the plan didn’t account for was a breakout performance from Ware.

The 6-foot sophomore found the soft spot in the center of the Regina zone and connected on 15-of-20 field goals, most coming from inside eight feet.

“Their game plan was to take away the 3-point line and we’ve faced teams that have done that but not maybe to that extent where they just really weren’t going to give us easy looks out there,” North Linn coach Brian Wheatley said. “I don’t know what Ellie ended up with but she made them pay for it and that just shows we can win in different ways.”

A North Linn squad that ranks third in the state in and tops in 2A with better than nine made 3-pointers per game this season went just 2-of-22 from beyond the arc as Regina hung around for better than 30 minutes.

In the end it was too much from Ware for Regina to overcome.

Ware scored on a putback following her sixth offensive rebound of the game with 1:17 left to put the Lynx up 44-39 and Grace Flanagan hit six consecutive free throws in the final 56 seconds to secure the win.

“I think it just goes to show that teams can’t just go out on our main shooters because we are going to find a way to win,” Ware said. “We don’t try to go for the statistics our main goal this game was to win mentally I think that’s what we had to do.”

Regina led 6-4 four minutes into the game before an 8-0 North Linn run to end the first quarter gave the Lynx a 12-6 lead.

Ware kept North Linn afloat in the first half with 22 points, including all 12 of the Lynx’s second-quarter points.

She was 11-of-14 from the field in the first half while the rest of the Lynx were 1-of-17 from the field and 0-of-11 from the 3-point line.

“The percentages were they have three kids that are averaging a lot of points and we just tried to take them out,” Wallace said. “Some breaks here or there could have gone our way but I am really proud of the way they competed.”

After a scoreless first half Grace Flanagan scored the first five points of the second half to push the lead to 29-21 but Regina responded and trailed just 35-32 going to the fourth.

Regina got as close as 39-38 on a Sam Greving putback with 4:34 left but scored just one point the rest of the way.

“Coming off a win like they had at West Branch you know they are playing with a lot of confidence, they have nothing to lose we knew they were going to come in and give us their best effort,” Wheatley said. “A couple of times I thought we had them on the ropes and then just like that they are right back into it.”

Elly Gahan had 16 points to lead Regina as North Linn focused its defensive effort on slowing Sam Greving and Kennedy Wallace.

Greving finished with seven points and nine rebounds and Wallace had eight points.

“We lost track of Gahan a few times more than we wanted but Wallace is really good and you can’t let her get going,” Wheatley said. “We had film on her when she had six or seven 3s and we didn’t want that and Greving has been playing really well for them so those two were the focus and their other kids to their credit made some plays.”

Regina             6   15  11   7   –  39

North Linn       12  12  11  15  –  50

Regina (39) – Elly Gahan 5-8 6-8 16, Annie Gahan 2-12 2-2 8, Claire Gaarde 0-2 0-0 0, Kennedy Wallace 3-11 0-0 8, Sam Greving 3-5 1-2 7, Totals 13-38 9-12 39.

North Linn (50) – Fallon Finnegan 0-1 0-0 0, Hannah Bridgewater 0-1 0-0 0, Chloe Vanetten 0-1 0-0 0, Grace Flanagan 3-12 6-6 14, Ellie Ware 15-20 2-2 32, Abby Flanagan 0-4 0-0 0, Kylie Kurt 2-11 0-0 4, Sydney Burke 0-5 0-0 0, Totals 20-55 8-8 50.

3-point field goals – ICR 4-21 (A. Gahan 2-11, Gaarde 0-2, Wallace 2-7, Greving 0-1), NL 2-22 (Finnegan 0-1, G. Flanagan 2-7, A. Flanagan 0-3, Kurt 0-7, Burke 0-4). Rebounds – ICR 29 (Greving 9), NL 30 (Ware, A. Flanagan 9). Turnovers – ICR 15, NL 4. Total fouls – ICR 12, NL 12. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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