Cook guides Iowa City Regina in bounce-back win over North Cedar

CLARENCE – When a player is averaging 25.2 points per game, it's common for an opposing coach to game plan against that, in an effort to minimize the damage.

North Cedar tried to do just that against Drew Cook and No. 6 Iowa City Regina last night, but the junior answered the call, to the tune of 33 points and 12 rebounds. The Regals worked as a team to overcome the focus on their leading scorer.

'He's a tough matchup,' Regina Coach Randy Larson said of Cook. 'They didn't have much depth inside, and couldn't double off Phil (Arendt), because he's such a monster on the boards.

'I just felt our guys did a nice job of not panicking when they couldn't get it to Drew right away. That was crucial for us.'

The Knights (13-4, 11-3 River Valley Conference) opened in a box-and-one defense on Cook, hoping to isolate him and limit his touches.

But the Regals (16-1, 15-1) and Cook stayed patient, worked around the focused defensive effort and created open looks for guys like Nathan Stenger (22 points, nine rebounds on 6 of 8 shooting from the field) and Phillip Arendt (seven points, five rebounds).

'It's definitely upsetting when a team comes out in a box-and-one, because you definitely need to work harder to get open (and) run people off screens,' Cook said. 'It's all about sharing the ball. There can be two guys on you, so you have to find the open guy. They (ended up in) four or five different defense, so I think we adjusted well.'

North Cedar was as close as to within five points in the third quarter at 53-48 after point guard Nick Phillips was given a technical foul. Coach Scott Jackson said his team could never quite overcome mistakes to complete the comeback.

He said, despite a poor shooting performance (the Knights shot 34 percent from the field as a team), he hopes his team can learn something from the loss.

'We missed some key opportunities, missed some crucial baskets at key times, missed a couple free throws at crucial times, and just couldn't get over that hump right there,' Jackson said. 'I think we struggled shooting the basketball early. We didn't want to take the ball to the hole, we didn't want to make anything happen. We were satisfied shooting jump shots.

'I hope we do (learn from it). I think we have the kids that will learn from it.'

Regina, which began a stretch last night where it will play four games in five days, was coming off its first loss this season, an 82-78 loss to Wilton in which Tyler Heltzer went for 48 points and Wilton shot 60 percent as a team.

Larson said last night he saw a focused team the last few days in practice, and was happy they got right back to work and didn't let the loss affect them.

'We talked all week about, 'Don't let one loss turn into more than one, don't let it drag you down,'' Larson said. 'The test of a man, as opposed to a boy, is: do you come back when you get knocked down? Everybody gets knocked down, but what do you do after that? Our guys really answered the challenge.' 

Editor's note: an earlier version of this story attributed the technical foul to Drew Cook. The foul was actually given to Nick Phillips. 

BOX SCORE

AT NORTH CEDAR

IOWA CITY REGINA (71): Nathan Stenger 6-8 7-9 22, Conner Brown 0-2 1-3 1, Nick Phillips 0-2 2-2 2, Drew Cook 9-18 13-13 33, Phillip Arendt 2-4 3-4 7, Ethan Suchomel 1-1 4-4 6, Michael Sehl 0-0 0-0 0, Nicholas Ziniel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-37 30-35 71.

NORTH CEDAR (61): Josh Kintzel 4-9 3-3 11, Jacob Hay 3-13 5-6 13, Seth Hamilton 4-7 3-6 11, Andrew Fields 2-5 5-6 9, Jayden Johnson 3-18 2-2 9, Dylan Deerberg 1-1 0-0 3, Noah Sander 1-1 0-0 2, Grant Pruess 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 19-56 18-23 61..Halftime – Regina 31, North Cedar 22. 3-point goals – Regina 5-13 (Stenger 3-5, Brown 0-2, Phillips 0-3, Cook 2-3). North Cedar 5-20 (Kintzel 0-2, Hay 2-9, Hamilton 0-1, Johnson 1-6, Deerberg 1-1, Pruess 1-1). Rebounds – Regina 37 (Cook 12), North Cedar 25 (Fields 6). Total fouls – Regina 22, North Cedar 26. Fouled out – Regina 1 (Suchomel), North Cedar 2 (Fields, Deerberg). Turnovers – Regina 9, North Cedar 7.