Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – With both programs built on defense it came as no surprise that a meeting between River Valley Conference rivals Regina and West Branch turned into a low-scoring slugfest.

The only real surprise on Tuesday was who eventually provided the offensive boost for the Bears.

Junior Lexi Peak poured in a career-high 12 points and sophomore Delaynie Luneckas scored 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds as Class 2A sixth-ranked pulled away for a 45-20 win over Regina in an RVC South Division showdown in West Branch.

“It’s really exciting to watch this team when everyone is contributing,” Peak said. “Everyone had an impact today and that makes me feel super confident going forward and I think we can accomplish great things.”

Peak and Luneckas scored 18 of their combined 22 points after halftime as West Branch (10-2, 9-1 RVC) broke open a three-point game.

The duo scored 12 consecutive points during a 14-0 West Branch run that spanned nearly four and half minutes at the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth quarter.

A 3-pointer by Peak capped the 14-0 burst that turned an 18-15 West Branch lead into a 32-15 advantage.

“I thought it was going to be pretty low scoring and the first half I was pretty worried about the score and how close it was,” Luneckas said. “We pulled it out with how we turned it up and got aggressive in the second half.”

Prior to Tuesday Peak and Luneckas seemed like unlikely offensive sparkplugs to many.

Peak hadn’t scored in the past two games and entered Tuesday averaging 3.5 points while Luneckas was only slightly higher at 4.8 points per game.

West Branch coach Jarod Tylee wasn’t among those that were shocked to see the two reserves provide some offensive punch late on Tuesday.

“To be honest I’m not surprised because I see them every day in practice,” Tylee said. “Lexi is probably our best knock down shooter and Delaynie is our most skilled post player so I wasn’t surprised to see them have performances like that.”

The strong second half performances from Peak and Luneckas helped West Branch shrug off some cold shooting, a season-low scoring output from leading scorer Sasha Koenig and a pesky Regina squad.

Koenig was held to just four points, nearly 12 below her average, on 1-of-9 shooting but got help from her less heralded teammates on Tuesday.

Peak scored all 12 of her points after halftime going 4-of-5 from 3-point range to help the Bears pull away.

“Every game the coaches tell me to shoot the ball,” Peak said. “They tell me that is what my role is on the team so when I don’t shoot the ball they get on me a little bit.”

West Branch led 14-9 at the half and 18-15 with under three minutes to play in the third quarter before Luneckas and Peak provided a spark.

A layup by Taya Young put West Branch up 20-15 and Peak hit her first 3-pointer of the game a minute late to up the lead to 23-15.

Luneckas scored the final four points of the quarter, giving West Branch a 27-15 lead with a putback that just beat the third quarter buzzer.

“I think we moved the ball really well during the second half and we had a lot more movement as a team,” Luneckas said. “With some players hitting some 3s that really opened up the lane and I was able to get the ball a lot more.”

Luneckas scored on a jump hook to start the fourth quarter and Peak nailed her second 3-pointer of the game to push the lead to 32-15.

Peak added two more 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as West Branch put the finishing touches on its sixth straight win.

“When I missed the first one I gave up my second shot but then I told myself I had to keep shooting that’s what I’m on the court for,” Peak said. “When I got one to go down I knew I had it.”

Sam Greving had seven points and Claire Gaarde and Annie Gahan each had five for Regina which dropped to 6-3 with its second consecutive loss to a ranked opponent.

Despite scoring a combined 39 points in loss to top-ranked Cascade and No. 6 West Branch the Regals have been in both games in the third quarter.

“We have come out and played well against great teams,” Regina coach Mary Halvorson said. “We’ve competed at a high level against great teams. We set up ourselves up for good success at half and we did really quality things without a doubt now it’s just finding that balance in the second half to carry that through.”

West Branch 11  3  13  18  –  45

Regina            4   5   6    5   –  20

West Branch (45) – Mackenzie Heise 2-3 3-4 7, Lexi Peak 4-6 0-0 12, Taylor Boelk 0-1 0-0 0, Delaynie Luneckas 5-8 0-1 10, Sasha Koenig 1-9 2-2 4, Rylan Druecker 2-7 0-0 5, Kaiya Luneckas 1-2 0-2 2, Taylor Thein 1-7 0-2 3, Taya Young 1-4 0-1 2, Team 17-47 5-12 45.

Regina (20) – Annie Gahan 2-9 0-2 5, Abby Clark 0-1 0-0 0, Grace Gaarde 0-3 0-0 0, Claire Gaarde 2-6 0-0 5, Lilly Simpson 1-3 0-2 2, Hope Simpson 0-0 1-2 1, Natalie Franklin 0-1 0-0 0, Sam Greving 2-8 3-4 7, Team 7-31 4-10 20.

3-point field goals – ICR 2-12 (Gahan 1-4, G. Gaarde 0-2, C. Gaarde 1-4, Greving 0-2), WB 6-17 (Peak 4-6, D. Luneckas 0-1, Koenig 0-2, Druecker 1-4, Thein 1-4). Rebounds – ICR 26 (C. Gaarde, L. Simpson 6), WB 34 (D. Luneckas 9). Turnovers – ICR 15, WB 8. Total fouls – ICR 14, WB 12. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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