It was a River Valley Conference doubleheader split for the Mid-Prairie boys and girls basketball teams Thursday in Cascade. The Golden Hawk girls fell to the 12th ranked Cougars on their home floor 64-51. It a game that featured two of the best defenses in their class in Iowa, it was the offenses that were on display. Cascade led 17-13 after one and put together a 10-2 run in the second quarter to open a 33-24 lead at the half. Mid-Prairie came out of the break and got back in the game with a 15-4 run that saw them take two seperate leads in the third, one on a Nora Pennington three, the second on a three from Amara Jones in the final seconds of the period that gave the Hawks a 44-43 lead going to the fourth. In the final frame, Cascade answered with a 15-4 run of their own to retake the lead and put it away late. The Hawks were led by 17 points from Maddie Nonnenmann and 16 from Amara Jones. The Hawks were outrebounded by seven and lost the turnover battle 18-12. The Mid-Prairie girls are now 3-3 on the year, Cascade is 6-1.

It was a workmanlike performance for the Mid-Prairie boys on Thursday as they remained unbeaten on the year with a 54-42 win over the Cougars. The Hawks brought their patience and their hard hats to the office in working against the bunkered down Cougar 2-3 zone and big man Cole McDermott for the Cougar offense. The Hawks led 12-7 after the first and 24-18 at the half. Cascade hung around with timely three point shooting, knocking down seven of them in the game, despite shooting only 20% from downtown on the year. They also leaned on McDermott for 18 points in the paint. The Hawks spread around the wealth on the other side with five players scoring including 21 points from Carter Harmsen and 13 from Alex Bean. Mid-Prairie put it away by outscoring the Cougars 30-24 after half. After the win, Golden Hawk head coach Daren Lambert talked about his team getting a tough road victory. “Tonight was the style of game that Cascade wants to force you to play. They want to make you work for everything you get. Jumping out to an 8-0 run, I have probably never done that against these guys. We defended well tonight also, only allowing 42 points even though they hit some shots. I told the guys during the game, you’re on the road in a tough place to play, against a team that’s very good defensively. We got to a point in the game where guys had to step up and when things slowed down offensively Alex Bean had a big second half, knocking down some big shots and getting a steal and a layup. I was very pleased with how he affected the game in a number of ways tonight.”

Mid-Prairie outrebounded the Cougars by eight and won the turnover battle 14-9. With the win, Mid-Prairie is 5-0 on the year, Cascade falls to 1-6. Mid-Prairie is next in action for an RVC doubleheader at Northeast Goose Lake Tuesday.