The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls basketball teams hosted their rivals from Iowa City Regina Tuesday night at Tim Grady Gymnasium in Wellman. The girls contest was tight all the way through, and required extra basketball with Regina coming out on top 55-46. The entirety of regulation was played a window of 10 points. Amara Jones sparked Mid-Prairie early with nine first quarter points including a finger roll layup at the buzzer. That gave the Hawks a 16-14 lead. Regina took a 27-23 lead into the break after a strong second quarter. Things stayed tight into the second half, and Mid-Prairie was down 44-41 with one minute left when Golden Hawk senior Cana Rediger drilled a three to tie it at 44. After a stop, the Hawks had the ball with 18 seconds left in regulation but were unable to find the winning basket and the contest went to overtime. The extra period belonged to Regina as they outscored the Hawks 11-2 for the win. Jones finished with 15 points, Maddie Nonnenmann had 13. Landry Pacha had 14 rebounds. Regina won the rebounding battle by six and the turnover battle 22-13. Mid-Prairie is now 2-2 on the year, Regina is 4-0.
The boys game saw the Golden Hawks methodically pull away for a 69-50 win. Things were even at 16 after one quarter but the Hawks used a 14-5 run that spanned the entire second quarter to lead 30-21 at half. Out of half the lead continued to grow with a 23 point quarter from the Golden Hawks to go up 53-35 going to the fourth. Mid-Prairie won the battle on the glass by 17, and the turnover battle 17-7, and posted their highest point total of the year while going a freezing one of 18 from downtown. After the game Golden Hawk head coach Daren Lambert talked about his highlights. “There’s that second quarter where they only got five points and into the third quarter when we went on our run. That was keyed by good defense and rebounding. Our goal is to speed them up into a forced shot and then rebound to make sure that’s the only one they get. I knew we didn’t shoot the ball well and then I heard we were one of 18. We have good shooters, I hope that’s the only time that happens this year. I like the way we responded to that though, the shots weren’t falling and we had to find another way to win and they did. These guys want to do great things this year. If they keep the mental focus we have had so far and competing, I feel like we can do it.”
Four Golden Hawks got to double figures with Ethan Kos leading the way at 16 points, nine rebounds. Carter Harmsen put in 14, Camron Pickard keyed the bench scoring with 13 points and Alex Bean had 12. The Hawks remain unbeaten at 3-0, Regina falls to 1-2. Mid-Prairie travels to North Cedar for a doubleheader Friday.