REINBECK — Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s post play kept the Rebels on course Tuesday night.

Michael Boyd and Drew Eilers found opportunities under the basket to fend off Waterloo Columbus, 48-39, at G-R High School.

Eilers led G-R (16-5) with 16 points and Boyd added 12 points. Isaac Clark chipped in 13 points.

Boyd, a 6-foot-5 junior, and Eilers, a 6-foot-3 junior, scored all 10 points for the Rebels in a fourth quarter where G-R had to put in extra work defensively after some early turnovers.

“Sometimes we get in a funk and try to rush things,” Boyd said. “Ball movement and limiting our turnovers were the key to winning the game.”

Jace Matern’s 3-pointer pulled Columbus within two at 38-36 with five minutes left in the game, but a 6-0 run bookended by buckets from Eilers pushed the lead back to eight and the Sailors weren’t within one possession the rest of the game.

“We’ve played four games in six days, and in all four games we’ve played really good defensively and rebounded well defensively,” G-R head coach Scott Kiburis said. “Offensively, we had some poor decisions, didn’t execute, and took a step back. I think we’re probably tired.”

Boyd and EIlers stepped up on both sides of the court against a tall, athletic Columbus team that blocked several Rebel shots on Tuesday.

The tandem are the Rebels’ leading scorers — Boyd entered Tuesday’s game averaging 14.6 points per game, and Eilers 12.9 with 10.2 rebounds on average as well.

“Michael and Drew just do a good job of, when things aren’t going great, they gut it out and get a shot as close as possible, maybe a second shot,” Kiburis said.

While G-R didn’t trail again after a 11-2 run in the second quarter pushed the Rebels ahead 26-16, the Sailors were often one shot away from turning the tables. Leo Christensen led the Columbus threat with 15 points.

“Our coaches are really pounding into us about defensive rebounding,” Boyd said. “We’ve needed to step that up and then just focus on ball handling, the passes that need to be made and the chemistry we have. … We just have to keep focusing on improving every day in practice and hopefully make a run here come next week.”

G-R will get a couple days to practice in preparation for the regular-season finale at Colo-NESCO on Friday before opening the postseason at home against H-L-V on Monday.

“You’d think with how much we’ve played that we would get better at certain things but I think we’ve gotten out of it,” Kiburis said. “So we go back to practice and show that we can’t take shortcuts to get a good shot. Hopefully we can get ourselves ready and prepared to do well in the district tournament.”

Gladbrook-Reinbeck 48, Waterloo Columbus 39

WATERLOO COLUMBUS (6-15) — Amani Robinson 2 1-2 6, Andrew Robinson 2 0-0 4, Leo Christensen 6 0-2 15, Nick Merrifield 2 3-4 7, Jace Matern 2 0-0 5, Drew Lindsay 0 0-0 0, Aiden Hosch 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 15 4-9 39.

GLADBROOK-REINBECK (15-5) — Isaac Clark 5 1-1 13, Austen Mathern 1 0-0 2, Hudson Clark 1 0-0 2, Drew Eilers 8 0-1 16, Michael Boyd 4 4-8 12, Brandon Mathern 1 0-0 3, Austin Vaverka 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20 5-10 48.

COLUMBUS 12 9 12 6 — 39

G-R 13 13 12 10 — 48

3-Point Goals–Columbus 5 (Christensen 3, Am. Robinson, Matern), G-R 3 (I. Clark 2, B. Mathern). Team Fouls–Columbus 11, G-R 12. Fouled Out–none.