The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls basketball teams made their final doubleheader road trip of the regular season Friday when they traveled to West Branch to take on the state ranked Bears. The Golden Hawk boys pulled a shocker, upsetting No. 8 West Branch 47-41. In an electric senior night atmosphere West Branch threatened to run away early, scoring the game’s first seven points. Mid-Prairie would answer with seven straight and the two teams were locked into a tight contest the rest of the night. The Bears got key threes from Trey Eagle and Peyton Miller to lift them to a 27-21 lead at the half. In the second half the Mid-Prairie defense brought the West Branch offense to a screeching halt. The Hawks allowed just three field goals the entire second half, including holding the Bears to a nine minute drought from the floor through the third and early fourth quarter. During that time the Golden Hawk offense got hot with Aidan Rath and Carter Harmsen scoring in tandem throughout the second half. Mid-Prairie took a 35-32 lead to the fourth and up two at 43-41 would get clutch baskets from Jack Baker and Jacob Nonnenmann to seal the win. After the game head coach Daren Lambert talk about the signature win for the program. “As you notice, I had to do a little wardrobe change. I might have a dry cleaning bill, they got me a little wet, it’s a celebration in there and they deserve it. I am so proud to say I’m the head coach of Mid-Prairie boys basketball. The fan support on the road tonight was amazing, half of them are still down on the court! We were hungry for this one. Two weeks ago against West Branch, we fought so hard and to see their buzzer beater go in to beat us, you could see it in our guys eyes, they had this one circled. This makes it three in a row and even sweeter. The hunger and fight we showed I am so proud. We dug in defensively. We ended the possession with one shot on the defensive glass. Rath and Harmsen played well off of each other.”

Rath led the Hawks, on his birthday, with a game high 18 points, Carter Harmsen had 17. The Hawks have won three in a row and are now 6-13 on the year. West Branch falls to 16-3.

On the girls side, Mid-Prairie dropped the contest 63-25. The No. 6 ranked Bears flexed their muscles early, closing the first quarter on a 21-5 run to take a 21-7 lead they wouldn’t give up the rest of the night. West Branch led 33-18 at the break. The Bears outscored the Hawks 28-5 in total in the second half and outside of the second quarter 51-12 in the game. The Golden Hawks were led by six points from Colby Rourke, with the loss, Mid-Prairie is now 7-13.