Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – There is no such thing as ‘must win’ game in January in high school girls basketball in Iowa.

However, when it comes to the River Valley Conference South Division race Regina’s meeting with 3A No. 13 Mid-Prairie was a game the Regals needed.

Regina got the win it had to have on Tuesday.

Addie McLaughlin poured in a game-high 24 points and Regina limited Mid-Prairie to 28 percent shooting in a 54-36 win over the Golden Hawks in Iowa City.

“Coach told us before the game we had to come out and play our best basketball,” McLaughlin said. “We had to get this win if we wanted to have a chance at winning conference so this is a big one for us. We played together and it was a good team win.”

Regina improved to 10-3 on the season and moved to 5-1 in RVC South Division play, one game back of South Division leader Tipton.

Mid-Prairie dropped to 7-4 with its second loss in as many days and fell to 5-1 in RVC play.

“Losing to Tipton already, looking at the standings this one was huge,” Rogers said. “This sets our sights on what’s to come and we definitely touched on how important this one was at home and coming off a couple of good wins we wanted to keep it rolling.”

Regina scored the first five points of the game, led 20-13 after the opening quarter and never looked back.

The Regals closed the first half with a 7-2 spurt over the final 4:46 that turned a six-point lead into a 29-18 halftime cushion.

McLaughlin had 10 of her game-high 24 points in the first quarter and Regina got five first-half points from juniors Nora Wade and Adalee Klein and four from freshman Jada Wiltz while building its lead.

“It was huge to start off strong and my teammates really stepped up and hit big shots,” McLaughlin said. “My teammates stepping up, that was really huge for us.”

Regina never let Mid-Prairie back in the game.

The Regals forced Mid-Prairie into 27 turnovers, including 11 in the third quarter, and limited the Golden Hawks to just 14-of-50 shooting from the floor.

Regina shot just 37 percent, including 2-of-15 from 3-point range, but went 16-of-20 from the free throw line.

“Sometimes it looked messy but they fought hard for it, they kept competing, they kept playing,” Rogers said. “I thought on defense we really did play well.”

McLaughlin had 24 points on an efficient 9-of-16 shooting while Klein added nine points and seven rebounds.

Wiltz finished with six points and Wade, Ella Keune and Maggie Sueppel all had five points.

“We are getting healthier,” Rogers said. “We still have two kids with a lot of minutes that this is their second game back and we aren’t a completely different team but we sure do play a little bit different based on the personnel that is in.”

Morgyn Bender led Mid-Prairie with 10 points and nine rebounds and Tessa Bombei had nine points for the Golden Hawks.

Mid-Prairie               13  5   6   12  –  36

Regina                        20  9  10  15  –  53

Mid-Prairie (36) – Katelyn Harland 2-5 0-0 4, Olivia Swartzendruber 2-2 0-0 4, Jeorgia Evans 0-4 0-0 0, Jovi Evans 2-6 2-2 6, Myli Hershberger 0-1 1-2 1, Brooklyn Schneider 0-2 0-0 0, Tessa Bombei 3-9 1-2 9, Morgyn Bender 4-17 1-2 10, Harper Pacha 1-4 0-0 2, Totals 14-50 5-8 36.

Regina (53) – Jada Wiltz 1-13 4-4 6, Nora Wade 2-4 0-0 5, Ella Keune 2-6 0-0 5, Mel Kirk 0-1 0-0 0, Maddie Squiers 0-1 0-0 0, Maggie Sueppel 0-1 5-6 5, Addie McLaughlin 9-16 6-6 24, Adalee Klein 4-7 1-4 9, Totals 18-49 16-20 53.

3-point field goal – M-P 3-18 (Harland 0-2, Jo. Evans 0-1, Schneider 0-2, Bombei 2-4, Bender 1-8, Pacha 0-1), ICR 2-15 (Wiltz 0-5, Wade 1-3, Keune 1-3, McLaughlin 0-4). Rebounds – M-P 30 (Bender 9), ICR 34 (Wiltz 8). Turnovers – M-P 27, ICR 23. Total fouls – M-P 15, ICR 6. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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