Ordman getting acclimated to new school, new program

IOWA CITY – The drive home from practices and games is five or 10 minutes now. It's not a half hour.

'No highway,” Stu Ordman cracked. 'Some of those nights when it was bad weather, you're white knuckling it on the wheel. All of a sudden, a 35-minute drive turned into an hour and 15-minute drive.”

Ordman surprised many last spring when he resigned after 17 seasons as head boys' basketball coach at Cedar Rapids Jefferson and took the same position at Iowa City Regina. That's moving down from Class 4A to 2A.

Sometimes you just need a change. Though he remains a teacher at Jeff, Ordman lives in Iowa City with his wife, Ginny, who teaches at Iowa City West.

He's at a school that expects to have success in every sport, including basketball.

'I enjoy the sense of community the Regina community provides,” Ordman said, after his second-ranked Regals survived Tipton, 62-56, Tuesday night. 'I enjoy the support that they give to the educational part and their sports. The guys are great guys, so that has been a lot of fun. And I know the Jefferson boys are in great hands, which has made the transition easier also.”

Brandon Horman was promoted from assistant to head coach at Jefferson, a move Ordman applauded. He has his hands full at Regina, despite all five starters being back from a 19-win team in 2013-14.

That includes all-stater Drew Cook, whose timely offense and rebounding saved Regina (2-0). The Regals scored the first 14 points, but Tipton (1-1) chipped away, got hot from the perimeter and took a 46-45 lead with five minutes to go on a Matthew Pelzer 3-pointer.

Cook had five straight points to put Regina right back ahead. Another Pelzer trey brought Tipton within 54-53 with 1:10 left, but the 6-foot-5 Cook's offensive rebound of a missed one-and-one free throw gave his team the ball back, and it made enough shots from the stripe the rest of the way.

'It is a little different this year, but he's a great coach and everyone seems all in,” said Cook, who had 25 points. 'We're all in with him, and that's all I've got to say.”

Nathan Stenger added 21 points for Regina, which played without starting center Phil Arendt and point guard Nick Phillips, who are resting injuries incurred during Regina's fifth consecutive state championship football season. The late hoops start and a brand new system has Ordman and the Regals trying to survive the pre-holiday portion of their schedule.

'We need more time together,” Ordman said. 'We've got a couple of starters out, and when they come back, hopefully everyone is that much better because of the extra time. They have a great attitude, and they know what's required to play at a championship level. I'm putting in a new system, so that is what has been a challenge.”

Ordman said one thing he is stressing to his team is working on its defense. That's especially difficult when so many of his players don't have their 'basketball legs,” yet.

Pelzer, by the way, led Tipton with 16 points. He and teammate Mark Becker (14 points) each had four 3-pointers.

'They're a good 3-point shooting team, and I told the guys we couldn't let them get happy and start drilling them,” Ordman said. 'We might have had a little case of rubber legs, maybe a step slow, and they got better looks than we might have liked. But I'm proud of the way we were resilient when they took the lead. We came back and got some high-percentage shots, took better shots and were pretty darned good at the free-throw line, too.”

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AT IOWA CITY

TIPTON (56): Mark Becker 5-9 0-0 14, Zachary Howell 1-1 0-0 2, Adam Hermsen 3-11 0-0 7, Derek Nebergall 3-11 2-2 8, Trent Schroeder 3-6 0-0 7, Logan Ralston 0-1 0-0 0, Logan Hoffman 0-0 0-0 0, Matthew Pelzer 6-12 0-0 16, Mitchell Penningroth 1-3 0-1 2. Totals 22 54 2-3 56.

IOWA CITY REGINA (62): Drew Cook 11-20 2-4 25, Nicolas Ziniel 3-3 0-1 6, Ethan Suchomel 0-2 3-6 3, Conner Brown 2-6 0-0 4, Nathan Stenger 7-13 7-8 21, Zachary Fackler 0-1 0-0 0, Andrew Adamec 0-0 0-0 0, Payton Raso 0-2 0-0 0, Thomas Rapp 0-0 0-0 0, Jack Jensen 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 21-49 12-19 62.

Halftime - Regina 28, Tipton 20. 3-point goals - Tipton 10-22 (Becker 4-7, Hermsen 1-6, Schroeder 1-1, Pelzer 4-8), Regina 2-12 (Cook 1-3, Suchomel 0-2, Brown 0-3, Stenger 0-1, Raso 0-1, Jensen 1-2). Rebounds - Tipton 26 (Becker, Nebergall 7), Regina 31 (Cook 9). Total fouls - Tipton 17, Regina 8. Fouled out - Hermsen. Turnovers - Tipton 8, Regina 5.