The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks hosted a cross division conference doubleheader with Bellevue on Saturday in Wellman. The Golden Hawk girls won their third straight, taking the first game of the doubleheader 46-34. The Hawks fell behind early, trailing 13-7 at the end of the first quarter, and found themselves down 19-9 midway through the second quarter. From there Mid-Prairie went on a 17-4 run that lasted the better part of two quarters to seize control, taking their first lead at 20-19 in the third quarter. Mid-Prairie continued to pull away and put the game out of reach with a scoring burst of 18 points in the final three and a half minutes.

Mid-Prairie head coach Stephen Bender says the first quarter wasn’t the prettiest, but once the girls got their legs under them, they showed up to play.

“Offensively in that first quarter we had eight turnovers, we really struggled with that, and not getting attempts in that first quarter dug ourselves a hole and got down 10, but we got some big shots, and big three-pointers. Alex Rath hit one and Ali Riggan hit a couple and got us back into the game, and I was really surprised we were only down three with as poorly as we played that first half,” Bender said. “Give Bellevue credit [thought], because they were very aggressive and played very well that first half.”

The Golden Hawks were led by 15 points from Taylor Kurtz, Ali Riggan had 13 points including three, three point goals and Alex Rath tossed in 12. With the win Mid-Prairie is now 4-4 overall and 4-2 in the RVC.

In the boys contest the Golden Hawks needed a win to set up a showdown Tuesday with #9 Iowa City Regina for the division lead. With a lot on the line the Hawks came up on the short end of a 66-63 score in double overtime. Mid-Prairie led 13-11 at the end of the first quarter but went more than five minutes of the second quarter without a field goal and trailed 22-21 at the half. Mid-Prairie started the third quarter on a 7-0 run and looked poised to take control but Bellevue, who came in searching for their first conference win of the season, would not go away. Trailing by nine going to the fourth quarter the Comets got hot from outside, hitting four threes in the final period. Mid-Prairie would go up two late but Colby Mangler had a put back to tie the game with 10 seconds left. Dayton Hall’s game winning attempt would rim out and the game went to the first overtime.

The Hawks led by five with one minute left in the extra frame but again could not close the door as Logan DeVries hit a 25 footer with under ten seconds left to tie the game and send it to a second overtime. In the second overtime Mid-Prairie went cold from the field and Bellevue knocked down late free throws to take the lead. The Hawks had a chance with the ball down one with 20 seconds left but Nick Stimson couldn’t get a baseline runner to fall. Mid-Prairie’s last gasp came with under 10 seconds remaining trailing by three when a final three point attempt rimmed out.

The Golden Hawks were led by 18 points from Nick Stimson, Dayton Hall had 14 and Nathan Faselt 12 points. Mid-Prairie is now 4-3 overall and 4-2 in the River Valley Conference. Both the Golden Hawk boys and girls will be in action Tuesday when they host Iowa City Regina.