Photo Courtesy of MP Sports Social Media (Nicole Miller)

Dominance. From the opening tip, the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk girls basketball team controlled every aspect of a 73-26 non-conference win at Fairfield Tuesday. Mid-Prairie scored the first 11 points of the contest, and turned that into a 23-5 run that lasted the entire first quarter. An 18-6 second period left the Hawks up by 30, 41-11 at the break. Mid-Prairie enacted the running clock in the third, building a 35 point cushion going to the fourth at 61-26. The Hawks held the Trojans off the board completely in the final quarter, pitching a 12-0 shut out to seal the win. After the game, Golden Hawk head coach Danny Hershberger joined the KCII postgame show to talk about his team’s work on both sides of the ball, the glass, and individual standouts.

Hershberger said, “It was our goal to start fast. We forced a couple of turnovers and hit a couple of big threes early. I was proud of how focused the girls were to start the game. We wanted to get the game going up and down and get them going faster than they were comfortable. I thought our girls did a good job of that. We were in the right rotations to get steals and did a good job with anticipation and jumping passing lanes. We want to turn those turnovers into points on our side and I thought our girls did a great job of executing that. We not the biggest team out there so we have to take pride in making sure we limit the other team to one shot. We also have to go get those offensive rebounds. Those are easy points you can get. It’s a hustle play and you get rewarded for it. I thought we did a good job of having balanced scoring. We got some good looks outside and we also attacked the basket. Brooklyn (Schneider) came out and hit those threes early, and was able to get some steals and easy offense that way as well. Jeorgia Evans had a huge third quarter. She comes in and makes good things happen. With her quickness, she’s able to get to the basket. She finished through contact and got some and-one opportunities. She made a lot of hustle plays.”

The Golden Hawk numbers were staggering. They forced 38 total Fairfield turnovers and had 30 steals. They won rebounding 52-25, including 34 offensive boards and dished out 17 assists. All 11 players that dressed for Mid-Prairie got in the game and scored. Sophomore Brooklyn Schneider led the way with 14 points and five steals. In her varsity debut, freshman Jeorgia Evans had 13 points and three assists. Callie Huber led with 11 rebounds and Morgyn Bender added two blocks. Mid-Prairie is now 1-0 on the year and off for the Thanksgiving holiday before traveling to Benton Tuesday.