Gladbrook-Reinbeck junior William Kiburis goes up for the dunk as Grundy Center’s Patrick Brown III gives chance during the second quarter of the Rebels’ 55-47 win Friday night in Reinbeck. Kiburis scored a game-high 23 points as the Class 1A No. 6 Rebels claimed their second-straight NICL West Division title. Photo by Noah Rohlfing

Clinching the NICL West title in front of a home crowd is good. Beating rivals in a playoff-style matchup with physical play, less-than-stellar shooting and 23 points from the team’s best player? That sounds like a near-perfect scenario.

It was a gritty, hard-fought 55-47 win for the No. 6 Rebels Friday night against Grundy Center — and it confirmed an unbeaten 10-0 conference schedule along with a second-straight title. G-R is 19-1 on the season.

Grundy Center (14-5, 8-2) made things very difficult for Gladbrook-Reinbeck from the opening whistle, and head coach Scott Kiburis said the Rebels had to fight for every point.

“You just can’t score on one play,” Scott said. “We’re playing a really good team that’s scouted us, that knows us, that we play in the summer. It’s not gonna come easy. We had to move that ball around a little bit and take what they give us, or what we create. But it can’t happen right away.

“I thought we moved it a bit better in that second half.”

Photo by Noah Rohlfing

Leading 10-5 after the opening eight minutes, G-R slowly began to open up a gap — taking a lead as large as 25-13 in the second quarter before the Spartans got back within six points, trailing 27-21 at the halftime break. G-R got into its offensive sets, but the physicality of the Grundy defense made it difficult to find truly open shots for much of the game. Transition was where William Kiburis and the Rebels found the most success — with William either taking the ball to the hoop for a bucket or free throws, finding an open man or setting up early offense and trying to keep the Spartans out of their set defense.

After scoring five straight points at the beginning of the third quarter and taking an 11-point lead, a 9-0 run from Grundy Center to cut the gap to 32-30. It was a big moment in the game and a big test for the Rebels with the playoffs coming up soon.

They rose to the challenge, with two key 3-pointers from Luke Riffey (five points) and Caleb Egesdal (nine points) putting the Rebels up 41-32 late in the quarter. Tristen Sanford-Anders played a key role in starting the run with two of his three blocks on defense. After a quiet start to the game, Sanford-Anders made his mark on the other end as well with 12 points.

Scott praised his ability to block shots and his shiftiness that catches opponents off guard at times.

“He’s very unique,” Scott said. “He doesn’t swing his arms, he kind of bats the ball, he protects the basket really well for us. I don’t think opponents realize how much ground he can cover up.

Photo by Noah Rohlfing

“I thought we did a really good job of competing inside.”

William continued to run the offense and settle the game down when the Spartans would start a comeback, keeping the gap in the 8-12 point range for much of the fourth quarter. Defensively, more key stops and rebounds from all over the court. William took 12 free throws in the second half (11 in the fourth quarter) and hit eight to ice the game.

Sanford-Anders said this game helped the Rebels get prepared for the postseason.

“It was really important,” Sanford-Anders said. “A couple of our games here have been pretty lopsided so it was good to have a close one with good intensity. The environment was great and we got the win.”

Gladbrook-Reinbeck plays Dike-New Hartford on Tuesday in its final regular-season action.

Photo by Noah Rohlfing

Gladbrook-Reinbeck 55, Grundy Center 47

GRUNDY CENTER (14-5, 8-2) — Dayne Zinkula 3 0-0 6, Dexter Whitehill 5 3-4 14, Brayden Sawyer 1 0-0 3, Bryce Greiner 2 0-0 4, Jalen Kirkpatrick 6 0-0 13, Patrick Brown III 0 0-0 0, Tate Jirovsky 1 0-0 2, Tiernan Vokes 2 0-0 5. TOTALS 20 3-4 47.

GLADBROOK-REINBECK (19-1, 10-0) — Isaac Clark 2 0-0 4, Luke Riffey 2 0-4 5, Caleb Egesdal 3 0-0 9, William Kiburis 5 13-17 23, Tristen Sanford-Anders 4 4-5 12, Logan Giesking 0 0-0 0, Austin Vaverka 1 0-0 2, Drew Eilers 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 17 17-26 55.

GRUNDY CTR. 5 16 13 13 — 47

G-R 10 17 14 14 — 55

3-Point Goals-GC 4 (Whitehill, Sawyer, Kirkpatrick, Vokes), G-R 4 (Egesdal 3, Riffey). Team Fouls-GC 20, G-R 13. Fouled Out-none.