Mid-Prairie and West Branch each took one game of their conference basketball doubleheader Tuesday night in West Branch. The girls contest went to the bears 48-36. Both teams were frigid from the field to start, going scoreless for the first six minutes of the game. Mid-Prairie put together a 7-0 run to take a 7-2 lead midway through the second quarter. The Bears worked to control the glass and got some easy baskets as a result to take a 17-15 lead into the break. Following the game Mid-Prairie Head Coach Stephen Bender talked about the rebound margin letting West Branch back in the game.

“I thought we did a better job of boxing out tonight then we did the last time, I think part of it was Poula was doing a nice job of burying us inside and when you’re that tall, it is really hard, even if you have her boxed out, to get them, because she got us pretty low. She was getting low, good position down there,” Bender said.

The Bears continued to pound the glass in the third quarter and stretched the lead out to 10 points behind strong play from center Haley Poula who led the Bears with 14 points. As they did Friday night the Hawks put together a fourth quarter run to cut the advantage to two but were unable to come away with a basket to wrestle the lead away from the Bears. West Branch used free throws down the stretch to build up the lead and ice the game. Offensively Mid-Prairie was led by Alex Rath who scored a game high 16 points off the bench. Taylor Kurtz added 13 points. The Mid-Prairie girls are now 0-3 on the year.

In the boys game Mid-Prairie jumped on the offensively challenged Bears early with an 8-2 run and never looked back en route to a 59-34 win. Mid-Prairie poured it on early behind nine first quarter points from Nick Stimson. The Hawks overplayed passing lanes with excellent pressure in the half court, forced 14 first half turnovers, and turned those into easy run out baskets. Mid-Prairie enjoyed a 40-18 lead at the break and would extend that lead to as much as 27 in the second half.

At one point Mid-Prairie held West Branch without a field goal for more than seven minutes in the second half and only two Bears scored after the half. Mid-Prairie had contributions up and down the line up led by Stimson’s game high 16 points. Dayton Hall and Riley Sieren each added 10 for the Hawks who posted their first win of the season. The Bears were led by 11 points from Mason Hays. After the game Golden Hawk Head Coach Chris Kern talked about how his team spread the offensive wealth.

“I thought that Nick and Dayton both really played well tonight, they are our one and two guards, and I just thought that both of them had big games, I know that both of them were a little disappointed in their play [against] North Cedar and both really wanted to come out and play tonight,” Kern said.

With the win the Mid-Prairie boys are now 1-1 on the season. The Golden Hawks will be back in action Thursday night when they host the West Liberty Comets.