The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls basketball teams split a pair of River Valley Conference games at Durant on Tuesday. In games heard on AM and FM KCII, the Golden Hawk girls were a winner by a 45-32 score. Both offenses started slowly with the game even at seven after the first quarter. In the second frame, Mid-Prairie got the offense going with 13 points, eight of those coming from Maddie Nonnenmann to take a 20-14 lead into the break. Out of the half, the Hawks pushed the lead to seven but Durant rallied to take a 26-25 lead late in the third. From there, Mid-Prairie closed the game on a 20-6 run over the final 10 minutes to pull away for the win. After the contest, Mid-Prairie head coach Danny Hershberger talked about how his team closed. “We were kind of on the ropes at the end of the third quarter. Colby Rourke hit a big shot at the end of the quarter to give us some momentum.  We challenged the girls going to the fourth to defend better than we did in the third. I’m proud of the way our girls executed and how tough they played down the stretch. This is the toughest we have played, Durant is a scrappy and physical team.”

Nonnenmann led the way for the Hawks with 17 points, Caitlyn Riggan added 10. With the win, the Hawks are now 3-6 on the year.

The Golden Hawk boys got down and couldn’t complete the comeback falling to Durant in the nightcap 62-52. Similar to the girls game it was a slow start offensively for each side with Durant up 9-8 after one quarter and 31-21 at half as the Wildcats settled in. The Cats would push that lead to 14 midway through the third quarter. The Golden Hawks put together a 12-2 burst to get within four, and cut the lead to six on three other occasions but couldn’t get over the hump in the loss. Mid-Prairie was led by 13 points from Ethan Trimpe and 11 for Carter Harmsen. With the loss, the Hawks fall to 2-7 on the year. The Mid-Prairie boys and girls will both be in action on Friday when they travel to West Liberty.