It took a second half comeback Saturday night, but the #13 ranked Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks punched their ticket to the regional semifinals, opening up the post season with a 54-40 win over visiting South Tama.
In a game heard on AM and FM KCII Mid-Prairie jumped out to a tremendous start leading 12-2 just three minutes into the contest. Good starts have been a key to Mid-Prairie’s success this year and Head Coach Marc Pennington spoke after the game about his team’s play.

“You know I thought we got off to a great start, you couldn’t have asked for a better one. We ran our press and were able to get up and down the floor a little bit, along with some good shots in transition and deflections. That’s how we play, it was great” Pennington said.

The 10 point advantage would be the largest for the Golden Hawks in the first half as South Tama went to work chipping away and got it down to a one possession game at half time. In the second half the Trojans continued their run shooting out to a five point lead at one point in the third quarter. Olivia Lugar delivered a big three off the bench to spark Mid-Prairie and the Hawks turned up their working on the glass and full court defense to run the Trojans out of the gym the rest of the way. After the game Mid-Prairie post player Jess Butters
talked about the teams keys and effort.

“All Coach wanted us to do was play the best game we have played yet this year. He wanted us to be aggressive on the boards and finish inside” Butters said.

Mid-Prairie was led on the night by Mariah Swartzentruber’s 21 points, 12 of those in the second half. With the win Mid-Prairie is now 16-6 and will host Collins/Maxwell/Baxter Wednesday night in Wellman. You can hear that game live on AM and FM KCII and KCIIRadio.com with pregame
at 6:30 and tip off at 7.