The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls basketball teams broke out their brooms Tuesday in a non-conference sweep of the Benton Bobcats on the road. The Golden Hawk girls started the night, rolling to a 59-29 win. Mid-Prairie trailed 10-8 after the first but took command with a dominating 21-1 run in the second quarter that lasted the entire frame to go up 29-11 at half. An 18-6 third quarter sprint put the game away for Mid-Prairie. Golden Hawk head coach Danny Hershberger talked with KCII Sports about the standout stats and performers in the win.
Hershberger said, “Our defensive effort was fantastic the whole game. In the full court and in the half court, we put pressure on their team and made them uncomfortable. We also did a great job of limiting them to one shot. This team is really unselfish, we have really balanced scoring. We pass up a good shot to get a great shot. Tessa Bombei led us in scoring with 12 points. She also did a great job defensively with four steals. She had seven or eight deflections on top of that and three blocked shots. She did a little bit of everything. Morgyn Bender came off the bench and provided a spark. She hit a couple of threes early and got some key defensive rebounds and turned that into offense. Brooklyn Schneider on the point had a solid game, no turnovers and hit three threes. Inside Brylee Gearhart and Callie Huber both had eight points. We did a good job Tuesday going inside and out.”
The Hawks shot 44% from the floor, hit seven threes, forced 29 turnovers, had 17 assists on 23 made baskets, won the boards by 11 and had 15 steals as a team. Individually, Tessa Bombei led with 12 points and Morgyn Bender added 10. The Hawks are now 2-0 ahead of their home opener Friday against Camanche, Benton is 0-1.
The nightcap featured a 63-43 Mid-Prairie win in their season opener. The Golden Hawks led 15-12 after one and 30-24 at half, but turned up the defensive effort out of break to go on a 21-9 run that spanned the full third quarter to get some breathing room to score the victory. Head coach Daren Lambert joined KCII sports to talk about the keys to the win.
Lambert said, “(In the second half) we protected the lane on defense. Really took away what they wanted to do. Made them run offense. With us on offense, we found our groove. After made shots we were able to get into our pressure and start getting some tips and turnovers. Ace Peck did a great job on offense hitting three point shots, he went four of nine, and also got to the rim. Brooks Weber, a sophomore, came in and went four of eight at the three point line and a lot of those assists were from older brother Brady (Weber). Bryce Henry hit some big shots for us and added 15 points. He was another guy that did a great job hitting open shots but also got to the rim. Hudson Ehrenfelt and Kaden Kos both rebounded well and got to the rim. Conner Wiles and Landon Kos did a great job of defending and doing the dirty work in the paint.”
Mid-Prairie shot 44% as a team, drilled a dozen threes, forced 20 turnovers with 13 assists and 10 steals. Ace Peck’s 23 points led the way, including four threes. Bryce Henry added 15 and Brooks Weber a dozen. Mid-Prairie is now 1-0 this year as Benton falls to 0-1. The Hawks take the court at home Friday against Camanche.