West Branch ends long Iowa City Regina boys’ basketball win streak

IOWA CITY — It was a trap question honestly.

Did his school-record individual performance the other night surpass what happened with his team Friday night at Iowa City Regina? Or was it vice versa?

Which was better and best for Holden Arnaman?

He scored 48 points to break West Branch’s single-game scoring record earlier this week as his Bears blew out Durant. There was no blowout for WB here, but a really, really nice 55-49 win over Class 2A’s 10th-ranked team.

Arnaman had a merely mortal 27 points as West Branch (12-5 overall) ended the 13-game win streak of Regina (13-3) and tied it for first place in the River Valley Conference’s South Division.

“Definitely tonight,” Arnaman, the all-state senior guard headed to NCAA Division II Minnesota State, said. “Just because we were down in the conference. We had one loss, they had zero. So this was huge. Our goal was a conference championship, going to state, stuff like that, so this was big.“

West Branch had control here for three full quarters, leading by as many as 14 points in the first half and by nine at halftime. The edge was a solid dozen, 44-32, after three quarters.

The reason was defense. Man to man, with a bit of 2-3 zone mixed in held Regina’s offense at bay most of the game.

Imagine this type of performance coming just days after West Branch gave up 100 points to Maquoketa.

“We have not been playing good defense this year, honestly,” said West Branch Coach Jason Kern. “We have been between a zone and a man. We knew we didn’t want their shooters to get some wide open shots against our zone. And they have some bigs in there. But our kids wanted to go man, so we went man. We dug deep, went deep in our scouting report and knew their stuff and their sets. Our kids were locked in tonight.”

You figured Regina would make some sort of fourth-quarter push, and that’s exactly what happened. A 13-0 run culminated by a Michael Martin backdoor layup gave the Regals a 45-44 lead with 3:00 to play.

Arnaman drove to the hoop for a bucket to put West Branch back on top, but Eddie Petersen countered for Regina to make it a 47-46 game (the Regals ahead) at about the two-minute mark.

Then came the play of the game. West Branch ran a four-flat play with Arnaman seeking penetration to the hoop, which he got, only to dish it to the right corner to a wide-open Reese Trepanier.

He nailed the clutch 3-pointer to move WB ahead for what turned out to be for good, 49-47, with 1:49 left. A defensive stop, two Michael Montgomery free throws, another defensive stop and two Arnaman free throws kinda sorta put it out of reach.

“Reese always steps up big. Every game,” said Arnaman. “That was a big-time shot. That won us the game, really. That got us a lead, and we just cruised from there.”

“Me and Holden have been playing together for three years, we’ve got a little bit of a connection there,” said Trepanier, a 6-footer who plays a power-forward position most of the time. “There was another play earlier in the game we do usually once a game, where I fly underneath and he goes across. But that one at the end, I know he’s driving, he’s going to score either way. I’m always there (in the corner) if he needs me. If I’m open, he finds me. That happened there.”

Freshman Tate Wallace had 16 points to lead Regina. The Regals lost their first two games this season under first-year head coach Paul Rundquist, to 3A schools Benton Community and Maquoketa but had been on an extreme heater since.

Regina got a last-second shot from Petersen to stun previously undefeated and 2A fourth-ranked Monticello last weekend.

“This means a lot to us,” Arnaman said. “They are a very good team, and they really run their stuff, so they’re always hard to guard, and they’re really well coached. But we’ve got the best coaching staff in the state, and we had a really good game plan. We knew all their sets, played good defense. That was the biggest thing, getting stops.”

West Branch 55, Iowa City Regina 49

AT IOWA CITY REGINA

WEST BRANCH (55): Reese Trepanier 7-14 0-0 16, Michael Montgomery 1-2 2-2 4, Brennen Dale 1-4 2-2 4, Holden Arnaman 10-22 5-6 27, Jayden Harris 0-3 0-0 0, Cameron Gingerich 1-1 0-0 2, Nathan Hills 1-3 0-2 2, Trenton Schutte 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-49 9-12 55.

IOWA CITY REGINA (49): Michael Martin 5-11 0-0 11, Drew Streb 4-7 0-0 8, Tate Wallace 7-13 1-6 16, Connor Nicpom 1-2 0-0 3, Eddie Petersen 3-5 0-0 7, Will Litton 1-1 0-0 2, Andrew Greve 0-1 0-0 0, Lucas Schechinger 0-0 2-4 2. Totals 21-40 3-10 49.

Halftime - West Branch 28, Regina 18. 3-point goals - West Branch 4-17 (Trepanier 2-3, Dale 0-2, Arnaman 2-9, Harris 0-2, Hills 0-1), Regina 4-12 (Martin 1-4, Wallace 1-3, Nicpon 1-2, Petersen 1-3). Rebounds - West Branch 25 (Trepanier 8), Regina 25 (Martin, Streb, Wallace 5). Total fouls - West Branch 11, Regina 16. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - West Branch 8, Regina 11.

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