Gladbrook-Reinbeck senior forward Drew Eilers scores two of his team-leading 17 points against Grundy Center during their NICL West Division basketball game Friday, Jan. 17, in Reinbeck. PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

REINBECK — The Grundy Center Spartans continued an undefeated start to the season, holding off Gladbrook-Reinbeck, 57-52, in a clash of two top-10 teams at G-R High School last Friday, Jan. 17.

Grundy Center, ranked sixth in Class 2A as of this past Monday (Jan. 20), improved to 12-0 overall and 5-0 in the NICL West following Friday’s game; eighth-ranked (1A) Gladbrook-Reinbeck (ranked No. 5 ahead of the game) fell to 9-2 overall and 3-2 in West play, with both losses coming to the Spartans.

Friday was the seventh game the Spartans have played without returning all-stater Jalen Kirkpatrick, but with a lineup full of top contributors to the recent state football championship three-peat, Grundy has capably weathered the storm.

“We are at our best when Jalen Kirkpatrick is in our rotation,” Grundy Center head coach Brent Thoren said. “Right now, we’re pretty darn good, but I think we can be even better.”

The Spartans were stuck on a 52-50 lead for around two minutes in the fourth quarter as neither team could get a shot to fall or make their opponent pay for a turnover. Finally, with 40 seconds left, a Rebel turnover led to a foul on Grundy’s Brayden Wallis with 33 seconds left, Wallis made both free throws to make it a four-point game. Another turnover essentially sealed G-R’s fate, as Judd Jirovsky took care of business making three of four free throws in the clutch.

PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

Grundy Center led by 10 points to start the fourth quarter but the Rebels went on a 13-3 run, including two 3-pointers from Brandon Mathern, to get back in the game.

“We knew they’d come back and shoot well in their own gym,” Thoren said, “but we did a really good job defensively of making them really work for their shots. We battled and made a lot of plays.”

Tiernan Vokes led the Spartans with 22 points and Jirovsky finished with 16 points. Drew Eilers had 17 for the Rebels and Brandon Mathern and Hudson Clark finished with 13 and 10 points, respectively.

“I’m really proud of our guys for battling back,” G-R head coach Brett Bengen said. “In games like this though, you’ve got to be almost perfect down the stretch, and we had a play or two tonight that wasn’t perfect.”

Grundy Center also held Michael Boyd, one of the Rebels’ leading scorers at 14.9 points per game, to zero points.

“The guys understood the scouting report,” Thoren said. “It was a collective effort against a tremendous player who’s shooting at a very high level and keeping him out of a rhythm really impacted how the game was played on their end.”

Grundy Center has a three-game home stand starting on Tuesday against South Hardin. The Spartans are well aware of how big the target is on their back at this point, as football success has once again rolled straight into basketball.

“Coach Thoren is always saying ‘Everyone’s coming to throw dirt on our grave,'” Vokes said. “So we’ve got to be ready, night in, night out, ready to come out and do our best and we’re going to be striving to do that in the back half of this season.”

Jase Theesfeld

During the game, Gladbrook-Reinbeck Class of 2024 alum Jase Theesfeld was given a special shout-out by players and spectators from both G-R and Grundy Center following news he had been hospitalized in Des Moines with a form of pneumonia. In the spirit of the University of Iowa’s Hawkeye Wave, the gym paused for a moment to wave at Jase through the livestream camera.

Following the game, Jace’s mom Carrie Henze posted a video to Facebook of the gym waving. As part of the post, she wrote, “How awesome to have BOTH of our home towns together tonight shouting out and waving to Jase! We are blessed to have so much love and prayers coming from GR and GC right now! Keep them all coming!”