The next hurdle stands in front of the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys basketball team tonight when they travel to Mt. Pleasant for the Class 2A District 12 Championship game against the West Burlington Falcons. The Golden Hawks are a school record 22-0 and are ranked No. 2 in the final 2A poll of the year from the Associated Press. The Hawks were overall River Valley Conference champions. They used a 25-2 second half run to get by Mediapolis in their playoff opener last week 57-31. On the year, the Hawks score 64 points per game and give up 43, shooting 48% from the floor, with 30 rebounds, 13 assists, nine steals and 10 turnovers per game. Carter Harmsen leads the way individually, the career 1,000 point scorer averages 20 points and eight rebounds per game. Jack Pennington leads the Golden Hawk guard court at four assists and two steals per night.

West Burlington enters tonight at 12-11. The Falcons went 8-8, finishing in fifth place in the South Division of the Southeast Iowa Superconference. They upset the No. 2 seed Cardinal in the district semifinals last week 62-57. The Falcons score 53 points per game and give up 50, shooting 41% from the floor, with 16 rebounds, eight assists, and six steals per game. Individually, they are led by Brady Martin at 13 points and two assists per game. Jace Figuereo has three rebounds and two assists per night. Mid-Prairie seniors Ethan Kos and Jack Pennington joined the KCII postgame show last week to talk about the keys to future playoff success. “This first round win feels good, it’s a reliever, but a new season starts already in the next round. We have to keep taking things one game at a time. We need to stay healthy, take care of ourselves, it’s been a long season. Watch some film, learn what they do. Push the ball start fast to take some of the pressure off early and then let us do what we do.”

These teams met three years ago in the playoffs, with the Falcons taking a 58-45 win. The victor of tonight’s game will play at in the substate final at Muscatine on Saturday against the winner of Camanche and Northeast Goose Lake for the right to advance to the class 2A state tournament. You can hear the Golden Hawks and Falcons play for the district championship live tonight on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show at 6:30 and tip off at 7p.m. from Mt. Pleasant High School.