Iowa City Regina rallies for girls’ state basketball return with OT win over Mediapolis

MUSCATINE — The Regals were down. Down big, in fact.

But never out.

Fifth-ranked Iowa City Regina (21-4) defeated No. 12 Mediapolis (20-4) in a 55-54 overtime thriller Thursday evening at Muscatine High School.

The Class 2A girls’ basketball regional final win put the Regals in the state tournament for the second consecutive season and the seventh in the last 11 years.

“I’m just so proud of the resiliency,” Regina Coach Mary Rogers said. “At halftime, they weren’t content with what was happening. The fire, I could just see it within them. They wanted this.”

The Regals trailed 28-21 at intermission.

With 3:55 left in the third quarter, a basket by Liz Lane gave Mediapolis its largest lead of the game at 39-26.

That’s when the Regals fired up.

“When we got down, we knew we had to pick something up,” Regina junior Alli Clark said. “We don’t usually get into holes like that, so we had to pick ourselves up. We just tried to keep the energy up and keep flowing with our offense and our defense and getting stops.”

Regina began to tighten things up defensively, implementing full-court pressure, and closed the gap to six (41-35) at the end of three.

“I thought in third and fourth it was our full-court pressure that kind of boosted our energy,” Rogers said. “We got tips, deflections and steals trying to go the other way. And then I just think we kept attacking the rim.”

A big part of the offensive attack was Clark, who had a team-high 16 points, 10 of which came in the second half.

“We put (Clark) inside of that zone and said ‘try to take it to them,’” Rogers said.

Mediapolis started the fourth hot, extending its lead to 10 with a little over seven minutes remaining.

The Regals kept chipping away.

Dani Laughlin hit a corner 3 with 6:30 left to put Regina back within six. Laughlin hit another 3 with 2:50 to go that got Regina within one, 47-46.

“Dani stuck a couple 3s that we needed so bad,” Rogers said. “It felt like we were never truly out of it, which with this group it’s for good reason because they’re battlers, they play hard.”

Senior Grace Gaarde then put Regina in front with a 3, giving the Regals a 49-47 advantage with 2:02 left.

“It was really important to get contributions from everyone,” Gaarde said. “Morgan (Miller) and Alli were amazing. Not just them, but everyone on our team stepped up and was ready for this.

“I know my whole high school basketball career is coming to an end, so I really wanted to make sure I get to have the best end to the season as possible.”

Gaarde finished with 14 points.

But Mediapolis wasn’t done.

Hanna Wagenbach, who had 21 points, hit a crucial shot in the low post to tie it at 49-all and send it to overtime.

It was Regina’s first overtime contest this season.

“It was stressful, especially when state is on the line,” Clark said. “We just knew what we had to do and we pushed through.”

The Bulldogs jumped out to a three-point lead to begin the extra period.

Miller hit a shot and Clark followed with another to give Regina the advantage back at 55-54 with 1:05 to go.

With 0.4 on the clock in overtime, Lane caught an inbound pass and got a shot up that just rattled out and Regina ended Mediapolis’ season for the third consecutive year.

“(Mediapolis) is an incredible program,” Rogers said. “They’ve had 20 wins or more four of the last five years. So, I mean, the job that Todd (Borrison) does is tremendous.”

“We worked hard to get back here,” Gaarde said. “We earned it. Our team was amazing this year. I couldn’t be more proud.”