North Tama guard Aubree Monat (13) looks to the basket as a pair of G-R Rebels trail her during the Tuesday, Dec. 21 game in Reinbeck. Photo by Noah Rohlfing

Basketball is a game of runs — and the fickleness of the game was on full display Tuesday, Dec. 21 in Gladbrook-Reinbeck girls’ basketball’s 47-42 victory over visiting North Tama.

Gladbrook-Reinbeck (5-5) led 11-10 after the first quarter but gave up a 19-5 run across the second and third quarters, facing a 13-point deficit with four minutes left in the third quarter.

What happened next was a 16-3 run to end the period tied at 32 — and putting North Tama (1-7) on its heels.

G-R then took a 42-35 lead with three minutes left and held on despite a late Redhawks push to seal the win — a third straight victory for the surging Rebels ahead of the winter break.

G-R head coach Amber Gerringer said the Rebels have become used to close finishes throughout the season.

North Tama sophomore guard Izzy Hallett (5) shoots for three against G-R. Hallett sunk four 3-pointers during the course of the game. Photo by Noah Rohlfing

“We’ve played a lot of close games and so they are kind of experienced in that,” Gerringer said. “We do a pretty good job of riding out the storm. I think the big thing was just pushing through being tired from playing three games in a row here and turning defense into offense.”

The Redhawks’ extended run in the middle of the game to take control of proceedings was aided by a 3-point barrage — North Tama made seven over the course of the game (four from Izzy Hallett and one each from Ava Breakenridge, Jules Breakenridge and Mya Sierra).

Offense inside the arc was hard to come by throughout for the Redhawks as G-R posts Katie Clark and Lily Dripps made things difficult even without Megan Cooley, who the team hopes is back after the winter break.

North Tama head coach Shawn Larmore said the size advantage G-R had was tough to overcome.

“They’re both good players and we kind of got ourselves in some foul trouble,” Larmore said. “We’re not real deep and I thought that kind of hurt us once we had to go with a little smaller lineup tonight.”

North Tama will be back in action following winter break on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022 in a home game against Clarksville. Tipoff is at 6:30 p.m. in the Redhawks Nest.