Sometimes you walk into the gym, and it feels…special. That was the atmosphere Monday night at Tim Grady Gymnasium as the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks welcomed the rival Williamsburg Raiders to Wellman for a non-conference doubleheader. The girls contest opened action and it went to the Raiders 40-37. Mid-Prairie put together a 9-0 run in the first to take a 9-4 lead to the second frame where Williamsburg went on a 14-6 burst of their own to lead 18-15 at half. Momentum shifted again in the third with a 12-4 Hawk run that lasted the entire period. Williamsburg started the fourth trailing 27-23, but scored 11 in a row to take a late lead. Down three with 10 seconds remaining, Mid-Prairie had two chances to tie the game from long range but the first shot wouldn’t fall the second was blocked by the Raider defense. Williamsburg won the turnover battle 12-8 and the battle of the boards by four. Mid-Prairie had two in double figures with Maddie Nonnenmann scoring 13, despite fouling out in the final period and Amara Jones with 12. The Golden Hawks were 6-5 after the defeat.

The boys game, was an instant classic. In front of a juiced up, full-house crowd, the Hawks held of the Raiders 76-71. Williamsburg’s offense was strong early, leading 21-16 after the first. The Golden Hawks rallied with seven straight in the second quarter and ultimately won the period 19-11 to take a 35-32 lead into the half. The third quarter belonged to the Hawks, they scored 12 in a row to open up a 16 point lead at it’s largest before taking a 58-44 lead to the fourth. In the final period, Williamsburg put up 25 total, cutting the Mid-Prairie lead to one possession, but the Hawks did enough down the stretch on offense to hold Williamsburg at arms length. After the game, Golden Hawk head coach Daren Lambert talked about the atmosphere, keys and spotlighted players. “You’ll notice as I come on-air that I had to change my clothes, the guys got some water bottles and celebrated in the locker room. I told them after the game that these are the moments that you live for, you fight for, that you wake up at 6a.m. in June and go to the gym and weight room for, to play in an atmosphere like this and come out on top. We did a good job taking care of the basketball, even though it kind of got away from us at the end of the game when they sped us up. Offensively, we were very patient. It was a track meet style game but we took what they gave us. Sometimes that was a 30 second possession, sometimes three seconds because we had a quick layup. In big moments, leaders step up, and that’s exactly what our guys did tonight. Jack (Pennington) had a lot of pressure on him to handle the basketball and take care of it. Will (Cavanagh) took care of the basketball and hit shots, Jack did the same. The thing that Ethan (Kos) does is that he’s just always in the right spot. He’s very patient on the offensive end and goes eight for nine from the floor. Carter (Harmsen), 20 points, 10 rebounds and also four assists. Can’t be more pleased with this effort. That’s what we expect from him and that’s what he expects for himself.”

The Golden Hawks outrebounded the Raiders by three, and overcame 15 turnovers. Three players got to double figures led by Carter Harmsen’s 20 points, Ethan Kos and Will Cavanagh each put up 18 points, Cavanagh’s coming on a career high six made threes. The win kept Mid-Prairie unbeaten at 11-0, the loss snapped Williamsburg’s eight game winning streak, dropping the Raiders to 9-2.