The Mid-Prairie basketball teams defended their homecourt Friday night posting a River Valley Conference Sweep over the
West Branch Bears. The girls contest had second place in the conference on the line, and the Golden Hawks were able to overwhelm the Bears on their way to a 45-39 win. Mid-Prairie did it with depth, using the bench mob mentality,
the Golden Hawks gave significant minutes to all 13 girls who suited up Friday night and had nine players find their way
into the scorebook.
The Bears got Mid-Prairie in foul trouble in the first half, leading to the extended rotation for the Golden Hawks but the Bears
led just 11-9 after the first quarter. The game went back and forth through most of the second period with West Branch holding a late 19-18 lead in the half. Mid-Prairie closed the quarter with a free throw and an Ali Riggan three at the buzzer to take a 22-19 lead to the locker room. The Golden Hawks continued to build on that momentum in the third quarter and the 4-0 run turned into a 22-8 burst that saw Mid-Prairie lead by as many as 13 midway through the fourth quarter. The Bears mounted a comeback cutting the lead to just four points with two minutes to go but late baskets from Alex Rath and free throws from Riggan and Taylor Kurtz put it on ice for the Golden Hawks. After the win Head Coach Stephen Bender talked about his extended rotation and wearing down the Bears.
“West Branch was a little tired, this is their third game in four days, they played last night. This is our first game this week, plus I played a lot of girls, I played 12 girls tonight. We kind of wore them down tonight and our defense really spurred our offense, we got some easy buckets with our defense, and when you defense can cause some offense for you, it is really a good thing and it really deflates the other team and I thought that was kind of the case with West Branch,” Bender said.
Kurtz and Riggan led the way for Mid-Prairie with 12 points a piece. The Golden Hawks are now in second place alone at 6-3
in the River Valley Conference just one game behind Iowa City Regina for the top spot and 6-5 overall.
In the nightcap the Mid-Prairie boys were able to overcome West Branch, 38-29. In a game of clashing tempos and styles it
was West Branch who controlled the pace forcing Mid-Prairie to play their ugly, grinding style of basketball. Mid-Prairie forced
West Branch into early foul trouble, reaching the bonus in the first three and half minutes of the game. However, the Hawks
couldn’t capitalize starting the contest 0 of 6 at the line. It was 10-9 after the first quarter and just 20-17 at the half as Mid-Prairie struggled to find breathing room against a team that they beat by 25 earlier in the year.
Out of the locker room West Branch put together their first run since the opening minutes of the game and took a brief five point lead. The Hawks answered from that point on, cutting the lead to one going to fourth quarter and taking over the final period, ending the game on a 16-4 run. Mid-Prairie closed with a strong performance from the line, going 5 of 6 at the stripe with under one minute to play to put the game out of reach. Following the game Head Coach Chris Kern talked about his team finishing
“That fourth quarter, I thought that we really buckled down, had some nice rebounding and shut down their guys when we needed to, and hit some free throws in the second half,” Kern said.
The Golden Hawks were led by Spencer Shalla’s 10 points, he was the only player in double figures for Mid-Prairie. The Hawks are now 6-4 overall and 6-3 in the River Valley Conference.