The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk girls basketball team begins the year tonight when they host the Fairfield Trojans. Mid-Prairie finished last year 16-7, 9-3, third place in the River Valley. They lost six seniors to graduation, accounting for 90% of their stats. The Hawk’s top two scorers, Landry Pacha and Amara Jones, top two rebounders, Pacha and Kylie Reinier and top four in assists, Jones, Maya Nonnenmann, Pacha and Reinier have all graduated. Nora Pennington scored eight points per game last season, third most, has the top total returning. Callie Huber is the leading rebounder back with four per night a season ago and Jovi Evans had an assist and a half per game last year, the top total back. The Golden Hawks have a pair of preseason scrimmage wins, taking down Cardinal 32-26 at Pekin behind 12 points from Pennington, and beating WACO Friday in Wellman 76-39 with Evans putting up 23 points, Pennington 12 and Huber 10. Following the scrimmage win over the Warriors, Golden Hawk head coach Danny Hershberger joined the KCII postgame show to talk about the highlights of his team’s outing. “The way we play defense we have to have everyone help rebound. To see us come out and rebound the way we did tonight was a real positive for us. The biggest thing that sticks out is how hard we played. I thought the score didn’t matter. We continued to go as hard as we could. We had a lot of young girls get some experience out there. It was good to see them get on the court and look comfortable. They executed our defense and weren’t afraid to knock down some shots on offense.”

Fairfield was 2-19 a season ago, 1-9 in the Southeast Conference, finishing in the basement. They averaged 33 points, gave up 61, shot 29% from the floor, 26% from three and 47% at the line with 30 rebounds, seven assists, seven steals and 24 turnovers per game. They return stat leader Savannah Hollander after a junior season that saw her lead the way with 12 points, five boards, and two steals. She’s the leading returner for assists at two per night after the graduation of Ashlyn Lisk and her nine points, three boards, two assists and one steal per game.

The Golden Hawks won this contest on the road a year ago 59-42, behind an 11 point 10 rebound double double from Landry Pacha and 13 points from Amara Jones. You can hear all of the action live tonight between the Hawks and Trojans on AM 1380, FM 102.5, the KCII2 App and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Mid-Prairie basketball pregame show at seven and tip off at Tim Grady Gymnasium in Wellman at 7:30.