Photo Courtesy of Danny Hershberger
A new season dawns for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk girls basketball team tonight when they travel to Fairfield to take on the Trojans. The Hawks were 11-11 overall last season and 7-5 to finish third in the River Valley South. They were 6-3 before Christmas. The Golden Hawks scored 50 points per game and gave up 49 on 39% from the floor, 27% from three and 57% at the line with 36 boards per game, 10th in Class 3A, 12 assists, 12 steals, four blocks per game, fifth in 3A and 22 turnovers. Individually, Callie Huber led at 11 points and nine rebounds per night. Her 58% from the floor was fifth best in 3A. Jovi Evans returns after her team leading three assists per game. The Hawks have to replace lone senior Nora Pennington who was the steals leader at three per night, to go with eight points, three assists and three rebounds.
Fairfield was 3-17 overall a season ago and went winless in Southeast Conference play. The Trojans scored 39 points per game and gave up 57 on 36% from the floor, 27% from three and 52% at the line with 34 boards, eight assists, eight steals and 26 turnovers per game. The free throw percentage, assists, steals and turnover numbers are all bottom 10 in 3A. Individually, Fairfield has to replace Savannah Hollander who led them at 16 points, six boards, four steals and three assists per night. Faith Jones is back after finishing second to Hollander with six points, five boards, two assists and a steal per game. This week, Golden Hawk head coach Danny Hershberger spoke with KCII sports about what his team does well, where they need to improve, and what has him most excited.
Hershberger said, “We have done well at learning our keys defensively and being in the right spots. We have to get better from where we were last year, we can’t allow as many points. We also have to do a better job of taking care of the ball. Our focus is on controlling our turnovers. If we are able to do those things, we will be able to have a good year. I feel like we have some really good athletes. I think we can play an up-tempo game and be a lot of fun to watch, putting pressure on the other team on defense and pushing the ball up the court on offense.”
The Hawks won this matchup last year by a commanding 82-40 score in Wellman, led by Jovi Evans 15 points. The team forced 38 Fairfield turnovers. The two teams have split the last eight matchups, with Fairfield’s last win coming in 2016. 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 Golden Hawk basketball pregame show at 7p.m. And Unc N Nephs Food & Brew tipoff at 7:30 live from Fairfield High School.