When the Grinnell men’s basketball team defeated Lincoln Christian University 121-109 last weekend, the victory came with a new record: 77 rebounds.
“We started off really slow but got some good hustle,” said Tommy Smith ‘22. “Honestly we were kind of disappointed with our performance. We just had some rough patches where our defense just wasn’t quite what we wanted, but our effort was able to carry us through.”
Aiden Gilbert ‘23, point guard, agreed and said, “It was a pretty close game down the stretch but we pulled through towards the end.”
By the time the final buzzer sounded, Grinnell had shattered a team rebounding record that had stood since Pioneers pulled down 73 boards against Knox College in 1955.
“Part of the reason we got so many rebounds was that we missed so many shots,” Gilbert said.
He cited Grinnell’s long-time strategy of consistently shooting many three-pointers. “We play a very unique style… You come into the system and it’s different than basketball you’ve ever played in your life.”
The statistics bear out Gilbert’s observation. While their opponents hit a respectable 45% of their 96 field goal attempts, Grinnell connected on only 38 of their 111 tries. A lot of misses meant that there were a lot of rebounds to collect.
Gilbert added, “It’s not always a good case to get a lot of rebounds, but in that case it was because it gave us more opportunity to score.”
“I honestly don’t think any of us realized we’d done it,” said Smith. “It just felt natural with how much effort we put in and how hard we’re working.”
Gilbert echoed this sentiment. “We didn’t know about the record at first but it shows that the work we’ve been putting in at practice has been paying off.”
Energy seems to be a big focus for the team this year. Smith expressed “a little uncertainty with the new guys” but said, “we all get along really well. There’s a lot of energy and excitement and we can see our potential.”
Gilbert said the team atmosphere is “always great… We’re still figuring it out and we’re getting better every game.” He and Smith both hope the team can maintain its energy and continue breaking records.
