The Mid-Prairie boys and girls basketball teams turned their road trip to Durant Tuesday into a business trip, sweeping the Wildcats on their home floor. The Golden Hawk girls were a 54-29 winner to complete a season sweep of Durant. Mid-Prairie opened the game on an 8-2 run and never trailed on the day, holding a 23-19 lead at the half. The Hawks asserted control with a dominant third quarter, forcing 14 turnovers in the frame and going on a 16-4 run that lasted the entire period to open a 39-23 lead. Mid-Prairie would finish the game by outscoring the Wildcats 15-6 in the fourth. After the game, Mid-Prairie head coach Danny Hershberger talked about his team’s impressive second half. “We executed the offense well early and the defense was really good to start the game. We pride ourselves on good defense and being active. When we are doing that and moving our feet we are tough to score on. In the second half we got them to turn the ball over a lot. We settled down on offense and were more patient. Ester Hughes had a great start and really got us going. When she’s aggressive for us, getting to the basket, finishing, getting to the foul line, that’s huge for us. Maddie Nonnenmann is starting to come into her own and being aggressive on offense also. She the type of offensive player that when she gets hot she can get on a roll.”
The Golden Hawks were led by Maddie Nonnenmann’s game high 21 points. Ester Hughes also got to double figures with 10. The Golden Hawks won the battle for the boards by 10 and forced 34 Durant turnovers. With the win, Mid-Prairie is now 7-6 on the year and 7-5 in the River Valley as Durant falls to 3-11
The Mid-Prairie boys coasted to a 70-35 win in the nightcap. The Golden Hawks scored the first six of the night and then watched Durant answer with a 10-2 run to take a 10-8 lead. From there, Mid-Prairie went on a 28-6 blitz the rest of the first half to open a 36-16 advantage. The Golden Hawks maintained control after the break, outscoring the Wildcats 32-19 to finish the win, enacting the continuous clock in the last four minutes of the contest. Following the game, Golden Hawk head coach Daren Lambert talked about the team win and bouncing back from a pair of weekend losses. “Guys just bought in on defense tonight whether it was man or zone. We started boxing out well, closing with a high hand. We were in good position. We talk about effort on the defensive end taking care of the offensive end. You saw it here tonight. We stepped it up defensively and started hitting shots at the other end. Those were guy who stepped up and hit shots that struggled on that end of the floor the last few games. Four games last week, ended with two tough losses, this is a great win coming off of that. We put four in double figures tonight. Ethan Kos comes off the bench for 16 points and nine rebounds. We have seven starters, they just only let you put five out there so we treat it like reinforcements instead of substitutes. Aidan Rath also came in and did great things tonight. So did a lot of guys. Really gives us a lot of confidence going into the rest of the week.”
The Hawks put four in double figures led by 19 from Carter Harmsen. Ethan Kos had 16 off the bench, Alex Bean 12 and Aidan Rath 11. With the win, Mid-Prairie is 6-3 on the year. The Golden Hawk boys and girls are off until Friday when they host West Liberty.