The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks started the new year the right way Tuesday night at Tim Grady Gymnasium in Wellman, taking care of Durant 57-37 in their season and River Valley Conference opener.

After a back and forth first few minutes of the contest, the Golden Hawks took control with a 12-2 run that spanned the first and second quarters that included a three point goal by Maya Nonnenmann at the quarter buzzer and seven straight points from Landry Pacha. The Golden Hawks parlayed that into a 28-14 lead at half and would grow the advantage to as large as 20 after the break. Durant never got closer than 14 down the stretch as the Golden Hawks put the opener in the win column. Statistically, Mid-Prairie forced 25 Durant turnovers while committing 21 of their own, but did play a cleaner second half with only six giveaways. The Golden Hawks also outrebounded Durant by 10. Amara Jones led the way, the Mid-Prairie junior had 21 points, seven steals and seven boards. Maddie Nonnenmann also got to double figures with 14. After the game, Golden Hawk head coach Danny Hershberger talked about his takeaways. “It was huge for us to start being able to hit some shots. The shots from Maya Nonnenmann and the points from Landry Pacha were big for momentum. We want to win the turnover battle. We want to get our hands up. We chart deflections. We call them Hawk points and the kids have bought into that. Being able to play defense and affect the game with their hands and their feet. Another big key was to limit them to one shot and we did that. Amara Jones has always been someone who could score points but has played the role of point guard and distributor for us the last few years. We talked in the offseason about how her role was going to change this year and we needed her to look for her offense more. She can hit the shot from the outside, she can get to the basket and the effort that she plays with always pays off for her.”

With the win, Mid-Prairie enters the holiday break at 1-0 with a trip to West Liberty waiting Tuesday.