The Mid-Prairie boys and girls basketball teams opened up River Valley Conference play Friday night in Wellman hosting the North Cedar Knights. The Mid-Prairie girls started the game on a 9-1 run and were leading 9-3 after the first quarter behind hot shooting behind the arc from Ali Riggan and Ashley Sojka. North Cedar turned up it’s full court defensive pressure in the second half using Mid-Prairie turnovers to fuel a 16-6 run and take a 19-15 lead into the locker room.

The Knights would build a lead of 11 points midway through the third quarter before Mid-Prairie went on a 7-0 run of their own to cut it to 32-30 but that was as close as the Hawks would get, unable to take back the lead late. Mid-Prairie forced some late turnovers and got the defensive stops needed but could not convert offensively to make those mistakes hurt North Cedar. The Knights spent much of the last four minutes of the game at the free throw line and hit enough to salt the game away for a 44-39 win. Following the game Head Coach Stephen Bender talked about his team working to handle the pressure defense and the difference that made in the game.

“I thought we did much better against the press here tonight then we did against Washington, and I thought we improved in a lot of areas then we did in the game Tuesday night, so that’s good to take some stuff forward, but I don’t want to be satisfied with just improving, our ultimate goal is to get the win,” Bender said.

Offensively Mid-Prairie was led by Taylor Kurtz with her double double of 13 points and 10 rebounds. Ali Riggan added nine points on three, three point goals. The Mid-Prairie girls are now 0-2 overall and 0-1 in River Valley Conference play.

In the boys contest Mid-Prairie took on the #8 ranked Knights and it was North Cedar who pulled away in the second half for the 68-52 win. North Cedar used it’s quickness to slash through the Mid-Prairie defensive and get to the foul line to build a 13-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. The strategy also forced Mid-Prairie’s hand in their player rotation with the Hawks having to deal with foul trouble as early as the second quarter. In the second quarter Mid-Prairie got on track on the inside with Spencer Shalla and Christian Johnson, however North Cedar heated up from behind the arc with three, three point goals in the frame to lead 33-25 at the break.

Out of the locker room both teams continued to adjust to the closely officiated contest and spent much of the second half at the free throw line. The officials whistled 30 fouls in the first half and would end up calling 51 total fouls in the game. North Cedar continued their hot shooting out of the break, when they weren’t going to the line it seemed like it was Jayden Johnson or Jacob Hay that was knocking down a long ball. The Knights would building a lead of 20 before Mid-Prairie made it’s push at the end of the third quarter.

Nick Stimson hit back to back three pointers to get the Golden Hawk run started and a strip and layup by Dayton Hall had Mid-Prairie down by just 10 with five minutes to go. Following another North Cedar turnover Mid-Prairie was called for a charge in transition, and that was as close as the Hawks would get, dropping their season opener by 16. After the game Head Coach Chris Kern talked about his team’s second half run but not being able to get over the hump.

“When we went to our zone defense in the second quarter, and we kind of got back into the flow of the game, that allowed us to do some things, and then you take it down to the fourth quarter and I believe it about three minutes, we go down miss a layup and then they go down and hit one at the other end,” Kern said. “Just a lot of up and down, and just hard to figure.”

The Golden Hawks were led by Spencer Shalla’s 15 points. Christian Johnson also got to double figures with 10. The Mid-Prairie boys are now 0-1 on the year. The Golden Hawk boys and girls will both be in action at West Branch Tuesday.