The No. 7 Mid-Prairie girl’s basketball team will have a battle on their hands tonight as they play West Branch.

The Golden Hawks are 2-0 with shooting just 32.3 percent from the floor and 37.5 from the free throw line. They have 57 total boards and 40 steals so far this season.

Mid-Prairie is led by Mallory McArtor with 16 points, followed closely by Erika Murphy with 15.

West Branch is 2-1and is shooting close to 40 percent from the floor and 62. 3 percent from the charity stripe.

The Bears have 75 rebounds and 44 steals and have so far scored the most points in the fourth quarter.

They are led by Kelley Trimble who has 56 points and is shooting 40 plus percent from the floor and behind the arc.

Mid-Prairie head coach Marc Pennington said if the defense steps up along with some points, Mid-Prairie can come away with the win.

“If we guard and challenge shots like we’ve been doing and make them uncomfortable in the offensive end I think we’ll have a great opportunity, and second thing is we have to score a few points. For us to press we have to score,” Pennington said. “We’ve worked a ton offensively in the last week, just trying to get those game shots up and just giving those kids the confidence that they can make those shots, and we’re taking good shots, but need to shoot a little better percentage. Those are the two things and then the third thing is we need to rebound the ball, I think we rebounded really well against Washington and that was the difference in the game in my opinion.

Mid-Prarie and West Branch tip-off tonight at 6:00 in West Branch.

You can hear this game on AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com by clicking radio plus with pregame at 5:30 and tip-off of the girls game at 6. The one to count on for today’s local sports coverage is AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com.