The Spartans led from start to finish against East Marshall on Tuesday, winning 67-42 to clinch an outright claim to the NICL West title for the second-consecutive season.

Grundy Center, ranked fifth in Class 2A, remains unbeaten at 15-0 and improved to 7-0 in the West.

The Spartans shared the West title with Gladbrook-Reinbeck in 2022-23 after the Rebels smashed them, 81-50, on Feb. 3, 2023 — and Grundy Center hasn’t lost a division game since.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” said Grundy Center senior Brayden Wallis. “We’ve got one more game at AGWSR and we can’t overlook them. But it’s everything that we work for, one of our goals coming into every year.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - East Marshall’s Eli Burns (41) floats a shot over Grundy Center’s Tiernan Vokes, left, during Tuesday’s NICL West basketball game.

Tiernan Vokes scored a game-high 25 points to lead the Spartans, which also matched a career-high for the senior and Northern Iowa football commit. Wallis chipped in 18 points and Brody Zinkula scored nine points.

Vokes had nine points in the first quarter as Grundy Center started on a 9-0 run and led 21-9 after the first quarter, sustaining that to a 36-22 advantage at the halftime horn.

The Spartans had four players averaging double-figure scoring per game entering Tuesday’s game — Judd Jirovsky is at 13.6 points per game, followed by Vokes at 11.9, Wallis at 10.7 and Ryker Thoren at 10.4. And that’s all with last year’s leading scorer and all-state pick Jalen Kirkpatrick yet to suit up in the new year as he recovers from injury.

“The thing that makes us special is it’s a different guy stepping up every night,” Wallis said. “Tiernan’s shot wasn’t falling early on so he adjusted, went inside, got his buckets in there. He’s just doing tremendous.”

East Marshall played Grundy close in Le Grand on Dec. 20, with the Spartans winning 72-65.

Cody Weaver scored 12 points to lead the Mustangs and Jackson Bidwell added eight points.

“The biggest thing is that we’re here and not at home,” East Marshall head coach Chris Hungerford said. “We struggle shooting on the road, but give Grundy credit, they’re big and strong and don’t make it easy. We just didn’t knock down the shots that we got and had trouble holding on to the ball sometimes, just weren’t as good as we needed to be offensively.”

The Mustangs slip to 7-9 overall and 3-4 in the NICL West — they head home for a Friday NICL crossover with Jesup and then draw a tough matchup with 1A #6 Gladbrook-Reinbeck next Tuesday at home for the division finale.

“We want to have a winning regular season, and we still believe we can do that,” Hungerford said. “We’ve got a ways to go but we’re going to keep moving this thing forward.”

Grundy’s NICL crossover at Union Community on Friday is no gimme — the Knights have won four of their last six.

Until then, the Spartans can enjoy a healthy home win.

“It’s very gratifying to see these guys play,” Grundy Center head coach Brent Thoren said. “To see how they share the basketball, how hard they work on both ends of the floor. … It’s a bunch of unselfish kids that really like to win and don’t care who gets the credit.”

Grundy Center 67, East Marshall 42

EAST MARSHALL (7-9, 3-4) — Blake Neuroth 2 0-0 5, Cody Weaver 6 0-0 12, Jackson Bidwell 3 0-0 8, Cael Curphy 3 0-0 6, Leland Hamilton-Youngbird 1 0-0 3, Kaden Good 1 0-0 2, Bryer Cline 1 0-2 2, Jaxson Boswell 2 0-0 4, Eli Burns 0 0-0 0, Zach Denham 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 19 0-2 42.

GRUNDY CENTER (15-0, 7-0) — Brody Zinkula 4 1-2 9, Brayden Wallis 8 2-2 18, Ryker Thoren 1 5-10 7, Tiernan Vokes 11 1-3 25, Judd Jirovsky 1 0-0 2, Dayton Myers 0 0-0 0, Brayden Davie 1 0-0 2, Pete Lebo 2 0-0 4, Ryder Slifer 0 0-0 0, Preston Martens 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 28 9-19 67.

E. MARSHALL 9 13 12 8 — 42

GRUNDY CTR. 21 15 14 17 — 67

3-Point Goals–EM 4 (Bidwell 2, Neuroth, Hamilton-Youngbird), GC 2 (Vokes 2). Team Fouls–EM 14, GC 6. Fouled Out–none.