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Rebels weather Royal rumble

Smoldt nets 37 as No. 4 G-R eliminates Colo-NESCO

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM RING • Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s Joe Smoldt puts up a 3-point shot attempt against Colo-NESCO in the first quarter of Thursday’s Class 1A District 6 final in Grundy Center. Smoldt scored 37 points, including six 3-pointers, guiding the Rebels to a 64-56 win.

GRUNDY CENTER — There wasn’t enough sustenance to help both the Gladbrook-Reinbeck and Colo-NESCO boys’ basketball teams weather each other’s storms. In the end, it was the Rebels who gained enough nourishment to withstand the Royals’ final blows and come away with a Class 1A District 6 title, 64-56.

G-R senior Joe Smoldt led all scorers with 37 points and three steals, while corralling eight rebounds for the Rebels (23-2). Colo-NESCO (16-8) was led by Garret Tiarks’ 16 points and seven rebounds.

Colo-NESCO head coach Pat Wynja said the Royals ran their gameplan to perfection. Knowing Smoldt’s athletic abilities, the Royals’ plan was to shut everyone else down, while still trying to limit Smoldt’s scoring opportunities.

“We had the defensive gameplan,” Wynja said. “We knew Smoldt was going to get his [points]. I was really proud of our big guys forcing the Pierce kid middle, and we did a fantastic job on him. We played that gameplan really well tonight, it was just that little spurt at the end.”

The Royals came out in a triangle-and-two defense against the Rebels, putting two defenders on Smoldt and junior Caden Kickbush. They shuffled the defense around a bit, flashing zone and some man, to keep the Rebels honest.

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM RING • Colo-NESCO’s Garret Tiarks (21) has his shot blocked by Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s Mason Skovgard (31) in the first quarter Thursday in Grundy Center. G-R won 64-56 to advance to the substate final.

And for the most part, it worked. Kickbush was limited to just eight points Thursday night, Pierce had six and both Matt Roeding and Walker Thede had five apiece.

“We ran our traditional offense, kind of,” said G-R head coach Scott Kiburis. “We set screens for Joe again, and tried to get into it. When we play Wapsie [Valley] they’ll throw four defenses at us. A little bit of everything that we’ve seen, probably something we haven’t seen. It’s very effective on the inside. It’s hard to get Tyler [Pierce] good shots.”

But it was a stretch of about two and a half minutes, an area the Rebels have excelled at all season long, that allowed them to advance to their third consecutive substate final.

With 2 minutes, 29 seconds remaining, a Smoldt layup followed by a missed and-one opportunity, gave the Rebels a two-possession lead for the first time since the beginning of the fourth quarter. G-R shooters went on to shoot 3-for-6 from the line in that span, but allowed just two points — two Tiarks free throws — the rest of the way.

“We went zone and extended it there. And when you have a lead, you can extend it a little more,” Kiburis said. “I thought we did a really good job, especially getting the rebound. Because when you’re so spread out, there’s long rebounds. Defensively, we were a little bit better [than Tuesday night], especially when we needed it in the fourth quarter.”

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM RING • Colo-NESCO’s Matthew Hill (23) fires a shot over Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s Tyler Pierce in the third quarter Thursday in Grundy Center. Hill had 14 points for the Royals in the 64-56 loss.

The end result nearly exemplified just how back and forth most of the contest was. After one period, the Rebels were out to a 23-18 lead and controlling the pace.

Even two minutes into the second quarter, the Rebels carried on to a 32-18 lead, nearly diminishing any chance the Royals thought they might have at an upset.

That’s when the game took a turn.

Sean Cutler hit a 3-pointer at the 3:18 mark of the second quarter to silence an 11-0 G-R run and spark a 16-4 run in the Royals’ favor, bringing them back to within two points at halftime, 36-34.

The only four points the Rebels had in the final 4:42 came on a Smoldt layup with 20 seconds left and pair of Smoldt free throws with 0.8 seconds left on the clock.

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM RING

“During that stretch, we were executing really well,” Wynja said. “And the gym wasn’t loud enough and the kids could hear what I’m calling. There at the end, the gym got so loud the kids couldn’t hear what was going on and it caused us to stall out. It’s just too bad.”

Kiburis put the blame on himself for allowing the Royals to climb back into the contest in the second period.

“It was my stubbornness, not calling a timeout when I should have,” Kiburis said. “I was just thinking we’ll play through it, we’ve played through it a lot. But the teams are getting better. I don’t like to burn [timeouts] because I like to use them at the end and save them for our guys. But there needed to be a timeout way before I called it.”

The Rebels’ zone defense was ultimately the deciding factor in the fourth quarter. G-R shooters outscored Colo-NESCO 12-6 in their final defensive stand. Wynja said there was just one part of the gameplan the Royals failed to execute, and that’s what he believed to be the ultimatum of the Royals’ season.

“We were still going to shade toward [Smoldt],” Wynja said. “We thought if we could hold him to 30 [points] or less, we could win this game. Because we did our job on everyone else, he just makes so many tough shots. And seven more to what we wanted to hold him to, and that’s the difference.

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM RING

“But man, these kids have grown so much more as a team, it just makes it worthwhile coaching. It really does.”

Gladbrook-Reinbeck will face Wapsie Valley on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Cedar Falls High School, with a trip to the state tournament on the line. The Rebels defeated Lynnville-Sully in the substate final last year at the McLeod Center to punch their ticket to the 2016 state tournament.

Gladbrook-Reinbeck 64,

Colo-NESCO 56

At Grundy Center

COLO-NESCO (16-8) — Phil Bower 4 0-0 10, Sean Cutler 2 0-0 6, Garret Tiarks 6 3-4 16, Matt Hill 5 4-4 14, Bryce Niemeyer 2 0-0 4, Parker Eley 0 0-0 0, Jacob Clatt 6 0-1 12. TOTALS 19 7-8 56.

GLADBROOK-REINBECK (23-2) — Walker Thede 2 1-2 5, Caden Kickbush 3 0-0 8, Joe Smoldt 12 7-9 37, Matt Roeding 2 1-2 5, Tyler Pierce 2 2-3 6, Thomas Mussig 0 0-0 0, Jackson Kiburis 0 0-0 0, Mason Skovgard 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 22 11-16 64.

COLO-NESCO 18 16 16 6 — 56

G-R 23 13 16 12 — 64

3-Point Goals–C-N 5 (Bower 2, Cutler 2, Tiarks), G-R 9 (Smoldt 6, Kickbush 2, Skovgard). Rebounds–C-N 27 (Hill 9), G-R 26 (Smoldt 8). Assists–C-N 10 (Tiarks 5), G-R 7 (Smoldt, Roeding, Skovgard 2). Total Fouls–C-N 17, G-R 10. Fouled Out–None.

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