For the second consecutive season, the #7 (2A) Grundy Center boys basketball team will compete in the state tournament. The Spartans defeated Northeast 71-62 in Saturday’s 2A Substate 4 Final, as aired on 99 The Wave.
In a slugfest of a first quarter, the Rebels built a 16-14 lead. But the Grundy Center defense locked down while the offense found its rhythm for a 33-26 halftime lead. The Spartans created takeaways which led to transition buckets, allowing them to create double digit separation throughout the third quarter. Tiernan Vokes hit big buckets in the post and at the free throw line to rack up a team-high 20 points, and Northeast was unable to orchestrate a fourth quarter comeback.
“The same guys as a lot of other sports, so we set the same standard,” Junior Judd Jirovsky says. “The guys we have working in practice day in and day out, we’re just trying to get better each and every day, and I think it showed here today.”
Jirovsky added 14 points, Brayden Wallis had 12 and Jalen Kirkpatrick scored 10.
Head Coach Brent Thoren on the second half difference.
“Just really did a good job of transitioning,” Thoren says. “I thought that we got out and ran a little bit, and that’s what we wanted to do. Got some easy buckets, got them tired, just did a great job of trying to win some 50-50 balls for some extra possessions and then really worked the ball down on the inside. Tried to establish ourselves on the inside and get some easy buckets there. That was more or less the adjustments that we were trying to do, is get out and run a little bit. A little schematically some things and that type of stuff that we saw, but yeah I thought that was really the difference.”
The Spartans are the 6-seed in the Class 2A tournament, and will take on 3-seed Unity Christian in a quarterfinal on Tuesday, March 11 inside Wells Fargo Arena.
Judd Jirovsky interview:
Brent Thoren interview:
