It was a River Valley Conference doubleheader road split Friday for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk basketball teams as they took on West Branch. The Mid-Prairie boys won their 19th straight game to start the season in a hard fought 51-46 contest. Mid-Prairie led wire-to-wire, save for a few seconds in the first quarter, but the Bears would not go away. The Hawks were up 10-9 after one and 27-20 at the half thanks to a 9-0 second quarter run. After the break Mid-Prairie extended the lead to around a dozen and it sat at nine going to the fourth at 40-31. Down the stretch West Branch would pull within five, but Mid-Prairie got key baskets from senior Ethan Kos and went seven of 10 at the free throw line in the final three minutes to salt the game away. After the contest, Mid-Prairie’s seniors, Harmsen, Kos, Will Cavanagh, Justice Jones and Jack Pennington, talked about the battle, the intensity of the game and how things unfolded. “Coach Lambert likes to have us push the ball, especially after we get a turnover. I think that was our goal, to outrun them and make them tired. We also used it after the first quarter to get our offense going a little bit. At halftime we talked about defense, specifically No. 3 (Arnaman), we tried to match up on him better, we tried to get through screens. With West Branch it never really feels comfortable we know it’s going to be a fight. It’s always a battle. Lately, finishing has been our motto, and that looked a little different tonight than it did on Tuesday, but tonight, a win is a win at this point in the year. It just feels good to get out of here. I think we stuck together well even when things got tough and we were able to finish the game out.”

Mid-Prairie was led by Carter Harmsen with 18 points and 14 from Ethan Kos. With the win, Mid-Prairie, who has already secured the South Division River Valley title remains perfect on the year at 19-0 and 17-0 in conference with two regular season games remaining next week against Durant and No. 4 Monticello.

The Mid-Prairie girls had a tough night from the field and were beaten by the Bears 43-28. Mid-Prairie trailed 13-6 after one and 25-21 at half. The Hawks hung around in the first half by knocking down six three pointers. In the second half, Mid-Prairie went ice cold from the field, hitting just one shot in the second half, a Cana Rediger three pointer in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. In total, the drought for the Hawks lasted 15 minutes. In the second half they were outscored by the Bears 18-7. Rediger led Mid-Prairie with nine points. With the loss, Mid-Prairie is now 13-8.