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Smoldt eclipses 1,000 points at Upper Iowa

Joe Smoldt

FAYETTE — Former Mr. Iowa Basketball award winner Joe Smoldt scored a season-high 29 points to eclipse 1,000 for his career, helping the Upper Iowa University men’s basketball team avenge a 27-point loss by beating Augustana (S.D.) 110-100 in overtime on Friday night in their Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference South Division rematch.

Smoldt shot 7-for-9 from the field, including 5-of-6 from 3-point range, and was 10-for-10 at the free-throw line as Upper Iowa went over 100 points for the second time this winter. Smoldt also contributed five rebounds and four assists against just one turnover in his 35 minutes of playing time.

Smoldt, a junior guard from Gladbrook-Reinbeck High School, needed just 73 games at Upper Iowa to eclipse 1,000 points. He becomes the 28th player in school history to reach the plateau, and current ranks 26th on the Peacocks’ all-time scoring chart.

“Obviously I couldn’t do it by myself,” Smoldt said in a post-game interview. “Funny story: in high school I didn’t ever want to know milestones I was getting to because I just wanted to play the game and I don’t really care too much about that, but two teammates before the game told me about [him nearing 1,000] and I kind of got upset about that and told them it’s on them if we don’t get the win. But it turned out to be good.

“It was a fun night and most importantly a very, very good win against a very good team.”

The NSIC named Smoldt as its South Division Player of the Week on Monday after he averaged 21 points, four rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in two wins last week.

Smoldt scored 2,358 points in 110 games in his high school career, helping Gladbrook-Reinbeck reach three-straight Class 1A state tournaments including an undefeated championship season in 2014-15. He was the first three-time all-tournament team captain in state history and was named Mr. Iowa Basketball after his senior season in 2017.

Co-Mr. Iowa Basketball 2019, North Linn’s Jake Hilmer, is the starting point guard at Upper Iowa.

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