In a back and forth season opener, it was the Mid-Prairie girls basketball team that came out on top of a River Valley Conference battle with Durant Tuesday night in Wellman 40-36. In a game heard on AM and FM KCII, the Hawks had all the best of it early, opening the game on a 10-3 run, fueled by a pair of three point goals in the first frame from Myah Lugar. Durant turned to Ally Happ, their leading offensive returner to get back in the game. She posted a nine spot in the first quarter and Durant was up 16-14 after the game’s first eight minutes. The second quarter saw the Mid-Prairie defense dig in, allowing just five points in the period, while the Hawks answered with 10 to take a 24-21 lead into the half.

After a first possession three from Cana Rediger, the Hawks went into a seven minute drought from the floor. The Golden Hawk defense hung tough to keep Mid-Prairie in the game, but during the cold shooting stretch the Wildcats rebounded from the six point deficit to take a lead and the game would see-saw back and forth the rest of the night with Mid-Prairie up just 29-28 going to the fourth. Maddie Nonnenmann came alive in the final quarter for the Hawks, scoring Mid-Prairie’s first six points. Trailing 36-35 with around two minutes to play, the Hawks got a pair of key baskets that would decide the contest. Rediger stepped up and drilled a three from the left wing to give Mid-Prairie the lead for good and Esther Hughes finished in the lane in the final 45 seconds to ice it. After the game, Golden Hawk head coach Danny Hershberger talked about the team win. “Their pressure got to us after the fast start and I felt like we started rushing our offense a little bit. Overall I thought once we settled in defensively we did a really good job identifying their shooters. Our defense kept us in the game tonight. Myah Lugar did a great job of coming out and knocking down shots early to give us confidence. Maddie Nonnenmann didn’t have the first half that she wanted. She missed some shots she expects to make. She came back in the second half and the longer the game went on the more comfortable she got out on the floor. She hit some big shots late. Phelan Hostetler was big with her blocked shots. That’s a huge advantage for us to have someone like that who can patrol the lane. Esther Hughes is the spark plug for us. She’s going to hustle all over the place and get on the floor. She’ll probably have a couple of arm and leg burns after tonight. She’s the kind of a player a team needs to have play with effort like that.”

In the four point victory, Mid-Prairie forced 23 Durant turnovers, while having 19 giveaways of their own and the Hawks outrebounded the Wildcats 34-30. Lugar and Nonnenmann each went for 10 points in Mid-Prairie’s win. The Golden Hawks are now 1-0 and will be back in action after Thanksgiving on December 1st when they travel to Williamsburg.