The first River Valley Conference doubleheader of the season is here for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks when they host West Liberty in Wellman Tuesday. The Mid-Prairie girls enter the night with an 0-1 overall record after a 48-45 setback last week against Durant to open the year. Myah Lugar led Mid-Prairie in the opener with 11 points, Maddie Nonnenmann and Phelan Hostetler each had nine rebounds. Hostetler also had four assists.

This is the season opener for the Comet girls who went 7-14 a year ago. Macy Akers led the Comets a year ago scoring 10 points per game as a senior. She also led the team with 43 assists and 47 steals. Sailor Hall is the leading returner for West Liberty on the glass after pulling down a team best 112 rebounds last year, she is also the leading returning scorer, averaging eight per game a year ago. These two teams met twice a year ago with Mid-Prairie winning 54-40 at West Liberty and 38-35 in Wellman.

The Mid-Prairie boys open the year tonight after winning a pair of scrimmages over WACO and Keota to get ready for the year. Carter Harmsen led the way for the Hawks off the bench with 16 points against the Warriors. Against the Eagles it was Chris Miller with seven points. Ethan Trimpe is Mid-Prairie leading returner from a year ago, averaging eight points per game. He is also the team’s leading returner on the glass with 74 boards a year ago. Brad Tornow is back after leading the team and finishing in the top 10 in the state with 110 assists last year.

West Liberty was 2-20 a season ago. The Comets are looking to replace leading scorer Seth Feldman who has moved on through graduation after averaging 19 points per game a year ago. He was also the team leader with 44 assists, 44 steals and 178 rebounds. Returning for West Liberty are second leading scorer Gavin Chown who averaged 15 last year and had 88 rebounds along with Brodie Kilburn who was second with 32 assists. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Daren Lambert talked about what he has seen from his team in the preseason. “Just shoring some things up with the offense and on the defensive side of the ball. We know what we need to do to get ready and now it’s time to go to work.”

These two teams met twice a season ago with the Golden Hawks sweeping the games by scores of 63-51 and 78-61. You can hear all of the action live between the Golden Hawks and the Comets on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee pregame show at 5p.m., tip of the girls game at 5:30 with the boys to follow.