Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Regardless of the opponent the goal for Regina remains the same each game – get better.

In Tuesday’s meeting with River Valley Conference rival West Branch the Regals did just that.

Class 2A fourth-ranked Regina shot 64 percent from the field and produced a season-high point total in a 90-20 win over West Branch in an RVC South Division matchup in Iowa City.

“We come out every game playing the same no matter who we are playing, it’s just about us getting better ourselves,” Regina senior guard Morgan Miller said. “We have some big games coming up after break and this week we’ve been practicing really hard and we wanted to get this win and get a win Friday going into break.”

Miller scored a game-high 30 points to lead four Regina players in double figures on Tuesday as the Regals improved to 7-0 on the season.

Addie McLaughlin had 14 points, Caitlin Martin had 13 and Ella McLaughlin had 12 as Regina won its eighth in a row over West Branch.

“It doesn’t matter the year, it’s a rivalry game,” Regina coach Mary Rogers said. “It’s a rivalry and the girls have a chip on their shoulder and I know West Branch does to. In a rivalry you go in and you compete and we did that today.”

Regina shot 71 percent from the floor over the final three quarters and forced West Branch (1-6) into 31 turnovers in the win.

The Regals didn’t allow more than six points in a quarter and limited the Bears to 21 percent shooting.

“I told the girls we got better tonight,” Rogers said. “It felt different tonight in how we got better. I thought defensively we weren’t jumping and getting out of position as much to get steals. We used the possessions wiser on defense but it wasn’t out of rotation and I thought we were disciplined.”

Regina led 4-2 three minutes into the game and was up 8-2 midway through the opening quarter before getting rolling.

The Regals closed the first quarter on a 17-4 run.

“The start was just muddled up, we had a lot of free throws but we missed them and we couldn’t get momentum,” Rogers said. “Our defense picked up and we got some easy transition baskets and from there we were able to get into our routine and rhythm.”

That was just the start for Regina which opened the second quarter on a 20-2 run that featured nine points from Miller.

Miller had 13 of her game-high 30 in the second quarter and finished 14-of-18 from the field.

“We definitely came out slower than what we normally do and I don’t think it’s anything we did wrong it’s just adjusting to the different defenses that they were playing us in,” Miller said. “We trust each other and we kept playing hard to get us through that little lull we didn’t worry but we had to play harder and be more aggressive.”

Elle Keune added nine points and Adalee Klein had seven points and seven rebounds for Regina.

Ava Burnett and Alyssa Pierce each had five points for West Branch and Lexi Skay had seven rebounds for the Bears.

West Branch               6    5    5    4   –  20

Regina                        20  29  21  20  –  90   

West Branch (20) – Katelyn Essington 0-3 0-0 0, Lexi Skay 2-7 0-0 4, Ava Burnett 2-7 0-0 5, Jenie Gomez 0-2 0-0 0, Alyssa Pierce 2-7 1-6 5, Addi Schultes 1-7 1-2 3, Emalyn Poe 0-2 0-0 0, Sulli Bucknell 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 8-39 2-8 20.

Regina (90) – Morgan Miller 14-18 1-2 30, Nora Wade 0-2 0-0 0, Ella Keune 3-4 2-2 9, Caitlin Martin 6-9 1-3 13, Ella McLaughlin 5-8 1-2 12, Maddie Squiers 1-1 0-0 2, Maggie Sueppel 1-1 1-1 3, Addie McLaughlin 6-10 0-1 14, Adalee Klein 2-6 3-8 7, Totals 38-59 9-19 90.

3-point field goals – West Branch 2-14 (Essington 0-3, Skay 0-2, Burnett 1-4, Gomez 0-2, Bucknell 1-3), Regina 5-12 (Miller 1-3, Wade 0-1, Keune 1-1, Martin 0-1, E. McLaughlin 1-3, A. McLaughlin 2-3). Rebounds – West Branch 28 (Skay 7), Regina 31 (Martin 8).Total fouls – West Branch 14, Regina 10. Turnovers – West Branch 31, Regina 4. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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