Things were tight until the end on Saturday, but the No. 14 ranked Mid-Prairie girls basketball team held off South Tama 50-45 in the regional finals to clinch a berth at the state tournament in Des Moines.

The Golden Hawks got out to a fast start, leading 8-1 in games first few minutes, and turning that into a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. Mid-Prairie would stretch the advantage to 19-10 before the Trojans closed the half on an 8-0 run to cut Mid-Prairie’s lead to one going to the break. In the third quarter Mid-Prairie used four straight South Tama turnovers to grow the lead again to nine points, the Golden Hawk advantage stood at 35-28 going to the fourth quarter. In the final period the Mid-Prairie lead would again grow to nine and it stayed there until the final 90 seconds when the Trojans made a furious final push, getting within three points before the Hawks put the game away at the line.

The Golden Hawks were led by 15 points from Addison Rath, who played just one minute of the first half due to foul trouble. Ireland Hostetler scored 13 and Ali Butters added 10. With the win Mid-Prairie advances to the state tournament for the seventh time in school history, and the first since 2013. The Golden Hawks will participate in the state quarterfinals in Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Tuesday, March 1st when they square off with the second ranked Stormin’ Pointers of Center Point-Urbana.