It took a come-from-behind effort, but the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys basketball team advanced through the first round of the playoffs Monday night at Durant with a 54-42 win over the Wilton Beavers. In the game’s first minute Buddy Darting hit a three pointer for the Beavers and Aidan Rath answered with a three of his own for Mid-Prairie to tie the game at three. Wilton went on an 11-2 run and would lead 17-12 after the first quarter. The Hawks got within 21-20 midway through the second, only to see the Beavers toss in nine straight to go up 30-20 with 1:09 left in the first half. Through that last minute plus, Mid-Prairie put in five in a row to get within 30-25 at the break. That run would continue after half for the Hawks and end up being 20-2 in total with the Golden Hawks taking their first lead at 33-32 late in the third quarter on a Brody Miller three. Mid-Prairie led 40-33 going to the fourth quarter and finished for the win. After the game, Mid-Prairie senior point guard Brad Tornow talked about the win. “We were just trying to play tough defense and continue our streak. Being here for four years now, there’s nothing like that atmosphere around the program right now. We had to come together. The run right before half was big, going in with those points and momentum. At half we talked a lot about our defense and switched defenses. Our bench tonight was amazing. We’re excited to go onto the next round and go back to practice Tuesday.”

Chris Miller led the Golden Hawks with 12 points, Brody Miller had 10, all in the second half. The Hawks have now won five in a row and improve to 8-13 on the year. The Hawks travel to No. 6 Camanche for the next round of the playoffs on Thursday.