The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk girls basketball team officially opens the season Tuesday when they travel to Durant to face the Wildcats in a River Valley Conference matchup.

The Hawks are coming off of a 12-10 season last year that saw them finish with a 9-9 mark in the RVC. Mid-Prairie will be trying to replace some key pieces from last year’s squad including leading scorer and member of the 1,000 career point club Addie Rath. Rath finished the season averaging 17 points per game. Along with Rath, also departing were seniors Anna Vilovchik, Delaney Smith and transfer Phelan Hostetler. Mid-PRairie does return Shae Becker for her senior season. She averaged just shy of a double double last season at 11 points and seven rebounds per game. Other key returners include Kessa Jones, Caitlyn Riggan, and Myah Lugar who scored 24 in a Hall of Pride game double overtime win against Clear Creek Amana last week.

Durant enters play after a 1-20 campaign a year ago. The Wildcats struggled in all aspects of the game but do return last year’s leading scorers in Ruby Kappeler and Kamryn Meyer each at seven points per game. Meyer also led the Wildcats with 141 boards a season ago. Hannah Happ the Wildcat leader with 29 assists last year is also back. These two teams met twice a year ago with the Hawks sweeping the season series, winning 59-12 in Wellman and 53-26 in Durant.

Tipoff is set for 7:15 at Durant.