Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Social Media
The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls basketball teams put their brooms to work Friday in a River Valley Conference sweep of the Comets at West Liberty. The Golden Hawk girls hung on for a 50-48 win over the No. 13 in Class 3A Comets. West Liberty had an early lead of 9-3 to start the game and 14-10 after one quarter, but Mid-Prairie countered with 10 straight points in the second and outscored the Comets 13-3 in total in the frame to go into half with a 27-23 lead. The Hawks would push the margin as high as 11 early in the fourth quarter and it stood there with three minutes to go. That’s when division I prospect Kelsey Joens took over for the Comets. She ended with a game high 27 points, 22 in the fourth quarter and tied the game at 48 with 11 seconds left. With one more chance the Golden Hawks beat the press, went the length of the floor and found senior Landry Pacha inside who was fouled with 1.6 seconds on the clock. She calmly strode to the line, knocked down a pair and gave the Hawks their margin of victory after a last second defense stop. Pacha spoke after the game hitting the free throws and the win. “Well, when I was out there I was shaking and then I just told myself ‘this has to go in. You are going to make this’, and I made both of them. I was so relieved. It was so close and my team just did great. everybody played very well and it was great when that buzzer went off.”
Nora Pennington led Mid-Prairie with 11 points. The Golden hawks were plus five on the glass, pulled down 14 offensive rebounds and were nine of 14 at the line in the fourth quarter to seal the win. The Hawks remain unbeaten since Christmas as they improve to 9-5 overall with a date at Cornell against Bellevue Saturday. West Liberty is now 9-5.
The Mid-Prairie boys took a bit to get going, but once things got started, they cruised by West Liberty to complete a season sweep of the Comets 65-44. Coming off of a tough loss at home Tuesday to West Branch, the Hawks found themselves tied at nine after the first. Mid-Prairie used a 10-0 run in the second to open up a 32-21 halftime lead and won the second half 33-23 to put the game away. The Hawks were plus 13 on the glass, including 19 offensive rebounds, had 16 assists and won the turnover battle 21 to 11. They had nine total players score, two in double figures with Camron Pickard getting 14 and Dylan Henry 11. After the game, Henry talked with KCII Sports about his night. “A lot of open layups and open lanes tonight. Trying to get to the rim and move the ball. Defense and rebounding were important. We gave a lot of effort. We have to keep going, keep improving.”
With the win, Mid-Prairie is now 9-5 and will meet Mount Pleasant Monday.