Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s Joe Smoldt (21) drives between South Hardin’s Eric Mulder, left, and Sam Shindelar in the first half of Friday’s NICL West Division opener in Eldora. Smoldt scored a career-high 28 points as the Rebels rallied for a 76-65 overtime victory. Mulder led the Tigers with 24 points. Photo by Tyler Strand

ELDORA – Scott Kiburis is accustomed to having two elite point guards at his disposal.

So with starting floor general Camden Kickbush still recovering from a collarbone injury suffered in the Class A football playoffs, the Rebels coach knew his team would be in good hands with sophomore Joe Smoldt running the offense.

Calm and collected while leading his team back from a 16-point deficit in the second quarter, Smoldt poured in a career-high 28 points to guide the Gladbrook-Reinbeck boys basketball team to a 76-65 overtime triumph over South Hardin in the season opener for both squads.

Smoldt scored 10 in the fourth quarter and sent the game into an extra session by knifing through the right side of the lane for a three-point play to knot the game at 62-62 with 29 seconds left. South Hardin held for the final shot but came up empty as G-R (1-0) carried the momentum into overtime by scoring the first six points and never allowing the Tigers (0-1) closer than four the rest of the way. Smoldt iced the game sinking 5-of-6 from the line in the final 90 seconds and converted 10-of-11 at the stripe overall.

More known for his pinpoint shooting, the sophomore had no problems leading the offense.

“Joe’s done a great job, he’s a natural point guard,” Kiburis said. “When we have Camden and Joe playing together I get so comfortable and have such a luxury of having two point guards in the game.

“Joe did a great job, he kept the ball in his hands in overtime and got to the free-throw line and knocked down shots.”

G-R mounted a 19-2 flurry over a 5-minute span in the third quarter transforming a 40-24 deficit into a 43-42 edge on Tyler Eiffler’s 3 from the corner with 18 seconds in the frame. Smoldt’s steal-and-layup early in the fourth widened the gap to 47-43 before Eric Mulder took over for the Tigers with a combination of transition floaters and jumpers, scoring eight points during a 12-0 spurt. The senior point guard punctuated the surge with a crisp cross-court pass to Sam Shindelar for a layup inside to put South Hardin back up 55-47 with 4:23 left in regulation.

The two point guards traded runs as Smoldt hit two free throws and a triple to bring G-R within two before Mulder countered with a trey and free throw of his own. Mulder poured in 13 of his team-high 24 points in the fourth but South Hardin’s offense got a little passive down the stretch. Mulder gave the Tigers a 62-59 lead with 36 ticks left before Smoldt responded at the other end and G-R seized momentum in overtime.

“We got stagnant on offense, I kept trying to tell the guys to keep attacking and we didn’t down the stretch,” Tigers coach Adam Weig said. “We just didn’t attack and they were in that 2-3 (zone) and we didn’t execute. We didn’t run stuff out of timeouts. I think I set up about three or four different plays and we didn’t run one of them. They’re a better group than the last four minutes of that fourth quarter.”

The Tigers scored 12 straight in the second quarter to build a 32-24 halftime lead and seized their 16-point advantage less than 3 minutes into the third when Mulder and Sam Shindelar buried back-to-back 3s.

G-R moved switched from its man defense into a zone and used a full-court press to force the Tigers into a quicker tempo to begin their rally.

“Our legs aren’t with us right now and they were driving to the basket and we were a little lazy,” Kiburis said. “The zone kind of got us moving and allowed us to press to fall back into it.”

Colton Dinsdale began the run with a putback and helped key the Rebels’ aggressiveness on the defensive end.

“Colton doesn’t score a lot of points but he creates a lot of offensive situations for us on the defensive end,” Kiburis said. “He gets them going faster, he gets tips and we got back into it a minute and half after we were playing so poorly.”

G-R scored several transition buckets to pull back into the lead and took it for good by hitting its free throws down the stretch. The Rebels finished 22-of-26 from the line, while the Tigers made 10-of-19.

“Smoldt plays like a senior, he should have been first team (NICL West) last year,” Weig said. “I thought Jonathan (Weber) did a pretty good job on him and we subbed in Hunter (Edgerton) too. We had him where we wanted him and we didn’t execute down the stretch. G-R is a good team and a good defense. It will be tough again at their place.”

Zach Pierce and Cameron Clark scored 15 points apiece for the Rebels and Eiffler added eight, while Dinsdale had six. Glendon Mesch scored 13 for South Hardin, while Sam Shindelar and David Shindelar each scored 12.

Notebook

Smoldt shot two technical free throws before the game even started to give G-R a 2-0 lead as South Hardin did not turn in its scorebook in the allotted 10 minutes before tip-off. Kiburis said Kickbush is hoping to rejoin the team in practice some over Christmas break and is shooting for a January return to game action.