Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Masen Miller has been nothing short of sensational to start the season.

On Tuesday Regina proved it didn’t need a huge scoring night from its senior point guard to be successful.

Regina relied on a strong defensive effort and balanced scoring to overcome a rare off shooting night for Miller in a 57-40 win over Durant in its home opener.

Ashton Cook scored a game-high 18 points and Regina limited Durant to 37 percent shooting while improving to 4-1 on the season and in River Valley Conference play.

“We can’t count on Masen to always shoot 80 percent from the 3-point line,” Cook said. “When there is a lot of attention being paid to him we need to step up as his teammates and I think we did a good job of that tonight.”

The top scorer in Class 2A at 28.5 points per game entering Tuesday, Miller was held to a season-low 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting.

With Durant (4-3) focusing its attention on slowing Miller the Regals relied on contributions from across the board on offense.

Five different Regals hit a 3-point on Tuesday as nine Regina players scored after only five Regals put up points in the previous two games.

“It says a lot about how the other guys on are team are playing,” Miller said. “I know I can count on my teammates if I’m having an off night or if they are throwing some defenses that we haven’t seen too much. I started off a little slow but it’s good to be able to rely on my teammates.”

Miller didn’t score in the first quarter and had just one point in the opening half yet Regina led 20-13 at the break.

It was more of the same after halftime.

As Durant focused on limiting Miller other players stepped forward to help Regina stretch the lead.

Chase Becker scored the first five points of the half and Colrae Kerschen hit a 3-pointer as Regina opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run.

“The more experience the better they are getting and the more comfortable they are getting,” Regina coach Jared Galpin said. “Danny (Molony) hit a three, Coltrae comes off the bench and hits a three, Casey (Daniel) comes off the bench and hits a three and that’s what is going to happen. I told them teams are going to let them shoot and not let Masen shoot so until we prove we can hit perimeter shots that’s what we are going to see.”

Miller had three points in the third quarter but Regina stretched the lead to 37-22 as four other players scored.

By the time Miller got rolling in the fourth quarter Regina had a 15-point cushion.

Miller hit all three of his fourth-quarter field goal attempts as Regina put the game away.

“It’s a credit to this team,” Miller said. “Our guys step up and they battle and they play hard and if one of us is having an off night the other guys will pick us up.”

Cook had 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Regina while Miller had eight boards to go with his 11 points.

Becker finished with seven points and six rebounds, Josh Dutchik had six points and Andrew Wiese had four.

“Every day in practice I see improvement,” Cook said. “I think we are molding well as a team and getting better every day.”

The 40 points were the lowest for Durant since a 61-37 loss to West Branch in its season opener.

Regina forced the Wildcats into 12 turnovers and didn’t allow double digit points in a quarter until giving up 18 in the fourth.

“We stress defense from day one, that’s our conversation in practice, pre-game halftime or whatever so when our offense isn’t flowing we say we can fall back on our defense,” Galpin said. “That’s our goal is that when our shots aren’t falling we are still going to guard and that’s what we saw tonight.”

Regina            7  13  17  20  –  57

Durant            6   7    9    18  –  40

Regina (57) – Danny Molony 1-4 0-0 3, Masen Miller 4-14 2-3 11, Casey Daniel 1-1 0-0 3, Coltrae Kerschen 1-2 0-0 3, Chase Becker 3-7 1-3 7, Kyle Schooley 0-0 2-2 2, Ashton Cook 8-14 1-4 18, Josh Dutchik 3-4 0-2 6, Andrew Wiese 2-3 0-0 4, Teaam 23-49 6-14 57.

Durant (40) – Drew DeLong 4-14 2-2 13, Nolan DeLong 1-1 0-0 2, Jake Willkomm 4-5 0-0 8, Marcus Engstler 1-5 0-0 2, Preston Wiese 1-2 0-0 2, Brendan Paper 3-16 0-0 7, Keagen Head 3-3 0-2 6, Team 17-46 2-4 40.

3-point field goals – ICR 5-17 (Miller 1-7, Molony 1-3, Daniel 1-1, Kerschen 1-2, Cook 1-2), DUR 4-17 (D. DeLong 3-8, Engstler 0-1, Paper 1-8). Rebounds – ICR 35 (Cook 9), DUR 27 (Paper 10). Turnovers – ICR 10, DUR 12. Total fouls – ICR 11, DUR 16. Fouled out – DUR (Wiese). Technical fouls – None.

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