Mid-Prairie dominated for 28 minutes on Tuesday night in West Liberty but had to hang on for dear life late to take a 53-52 road River Valley Conference win. The Comets got out of the gate quick with the games first five points, the Golden Hawks countered by scoring the next 10. Mid-Prairie led 12-11 at the end of the first quarter. The margin stayed between one and four points most of the second quarter but Mid-Prairie closed the half on an 11-2 run to gain some breathing room and take a 16 point lead into the locker room at 35-19. The Golden Hawks forced West Liberty into costly turnovers to start their runs. After the game Head Coach Stephen Bender talked about his teams defensive effort

“Our defense, I thought did some really nice things, our press, and then our defense in the half court really gave us some easy buckets,” Bender said. “We also hit some three-pointers, and lately I’ve really fell like our defense has really helped spark our offense, so that was nice to see.”

In the second half, the Golden Hawks continued their run, pushing the lead out to as many as 26 in the third quarter. West Liberty closed the third on a 7-0 run against the Mid-Prairie reserves, a foreshadowing of what was to come. In the final quarter the Golden Hawks led by 16 at the midway point of the period and 14 with two and a half minutes left before the frantic West Liberty comeback began. The Comets began to rain threes from everywhere on the floor, five total in the quarter, from a team shooting three pointers at just 11 percent for the year coming into the game. West Liberty got the Mid-Prairie lead down to just three points at 53-50 with under 15 seconds left.

Courtney Shalla was fouled and went to the line for a one and one where she was handed the ball and immediately whistled for a lane violation without moving her feet and West Liberty had a chance to tie. On the ensuing possession West Liberty’s Kayla Kaalberg got open in the corner and drilled the jumper at the buzzer, the crowd erupted as did she believing the game had been sent to overtime but the officials ruled her right foot was on the line leaving the comeback one point short and giving Mid-Prairie the one point win. Mid-Prairie was led by Ali Riggan’s 13 points, Alex Rath added 12. Mid-Prairie is now 7-5 overall and 7-3 in the RVC.