BOONE — Nothing surprises Brent Thoren anymore when it comes to athletics at Grundy Center.

The head coach for the Spartans boys basketball team has seen this group reach the big stage in multiple sports, and that streak of success has now continued over to the hardwood.

Grundy Center defeated Carroll Kuemper, 60-48, in a Class 2A Substate 6 final at Boone High School on Saturday night.

The Spartans qualified for state for the first time since 2003, and will take on Hudson at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 5 in a 2A state quarterfinal at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

With a roster that has a comprehensive history of big-game experience, including several contributors to Grundy Center’s back-to-back football state championship teams, Saturday kept a remarkable year for Spartan athletics rolling as both the girls and boys basketball teams are the latest to reach the state tournament.

“They’re all just really super talented and so driven, love to compete,” Thoren said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game, but they rise to the challenge time after time after time, regardless of the event they’re in.”

Kuemper, a returning state quarterfinalist from last season, never led after the first quarter, but kept the Spartans in range with tough defense and consistent offensive execution.

Grundy Center started the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run that ultimately was the Knights’ undoing, not getting closer than eight points the rest of the way.

“We’ve been dreaming of this since we were little kids, all these weekend tournaments that we would go to, one every week,” Grundy Center junior Brody Zinkula said. “It’s just amazing.”

Zinkula, who led all scorers with 14 points on Saturday, is part of a multi-talented upperclassmen group, including all-state football captain Colin Gordon and leading scorer Jalen Kirkpatrick.

In that pivotal fourth-quarter run, however, four different Spartans scored, with buckets from Tate Jirovsky, Tiernan Vokes, Gordon and sophomore state golf champion Judd Jirovsky.

“We’ve got so many guys on our team where any night could be their night,” Thoren said. “There’s just such a unique depth to our players that can mix and match and it’s such a luxury for us.”

Zinkula scored all seven points in a 7-2 run to open the second half and finished well above his average of 3.8 points per game coming into Saturday’s contest.

“We just had to attack them,” Zinkula said. “We knew that we could go at them, all we needed to do was get to the basket.”

Perhaps the biggest factor on Saturday was a distinct size advantage that translated into a lopsided rebounding margin for the Spartans, particularly with Kuemper quick to get back on defense after a miss to avoid being outrun by the athletic boys from Grundy.

“We knew we had the height advantage, and some strength advantage, too,” said Gordon, a senior, who finished with nine points for the Spartans on Saturday. “We knew rebounding was going to be big for us, not giving them second chances, and it paid off.”

The Spartan boys have enjoyed no shortage of success on the basketball court in recent years, but the state qualifier banner had eluded the cagers — until Saturday.

“We knew forever that we would have this group of guys to do it, it was just a matter of when we would do it,” Zinkula said. “I felt like after coming back from Christmas break, we knew we had it and we just kept rolling.”

Grundy Center 60, Carroll Kuemper 48

GRUNDY CENTER (20-3) — Brody Zinkula 4 6-7 14, Brayden Wallis 2 0-0 5, Ryker Thoren 0 1-2 1, Tiernan Vokes 4 0-0 8, Judd Jirovsky 3 0-0 6, Colin Gordon 3 3-4 9, Tate Jirovsky 3 2-2 8, Jalen Kirkpatrick 3 1-3 9. TOTALS 22 13-18 60.

CARROLL KUEMPER (19-4) — Benjamin Gerken 0 0-0 0, Michael Kasperbauer 3 4-6 11, Jase Hoffman 1 0-0 2, Jack Badding 1 0-0 3, Carson Kanne 2 0-0 6, Tregan Beiter 5 1-1 12, Brock Badding 1 0-0 2, Hans Kraus 2 0-0 4, Griffin Glynn 4 0-0 8. TOTALS 19 5-7 48.

GRUNDY CTR. 11 11 15 23 — 60

KUEMPER 10 10 14 14 — 48

3-Point Goals-Grundy Center 3 (Kirkpatrick 2, Wallis); Carroll Kuemper 5 (Kanne 2, Beiter, J. Badding, Kasperbauer). Total Fouls-Carroll Kuemper 12, Grundy Center 10. Fouled Out-None.