Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Social Media
The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks will begin what they hope is a long stay in Des Moines on Tuesday when they open up the class 2A boys state basketball tournament in the quarterfinal round with a matchup against fellow River Valley Conference foe Monticello. Mid-Prairie is making it’s eighth all-time appearance at state, all since 1970 and their first since 2010. The Hawks got to Des Moines with a 73-42 dismantling of Northeast Goose Lake in a substate final at Muscatine. Against the Rebels, the Hawks were led by Will Cavanagh’s 23 points on six made three point goals. Carter Harmsen added 17 points. On the year, Mid-Prairie is an undefeated 24-0, the best start and longest winning streak in program history. They were ranked No. 2 in the final class 2A Associated Press poll of the season and are the lone remaining unbeaten in 2A. Mid-Prairie is scoring 64 points per game and giving up 43 while shooting 48% from the floor, with 31 rebounds, 14 assists, nine steals and 10 turnovers per game. Individually, the Hawks are paced by Carter Harmsen at 20 points, eight rebounds and two steals per night. Jack Pennington leads the Golden Hawk guards with four assists per game. Mid-Prairie ranks in the top 10 in 2A in shooting percentage, three point percentage and points per game.
Monticello enters the state tournament at 21-3 on the year. The Panthers were 50-43 substate winners over No. 6 Williamsburg behind 18 points from Tate Petersen and 17 points and 10 rebounds from Preston Ries. The Panthers finished 17-2 and were champions of the north division of the RVC. Monticello was ranked No. 7 in the final class 2A poll of the year from the Associated Press. This is the third consecutive year the Panthers have qualified for state. On the season, Monitcello is scoring 60 points per game and giving up 47 while shooting 46% with 26 rebounds, 16 assists, seven steals and eight turnovers per night. The Panthers rank in the top 10 in 2A for the year in assists per game, three point percentage and free throw percentage. Petersen and Ries led the way for Monticello each at 19 points per game. Ries has seven rebounds per night and Petersen six assists. Following the Golden Hawks substate win, head coach Daren Lambert joined the KCII postgame show to talk about the work of his team to qualify for state and the feeling around the program. “I’m always proud to call myself a Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk. In the earlier rounds of the tournament it was amazing to see the turnout and community support, tonight (at substate) I think we have twice as many people here. We’re 24-0 and we’re going to state but it’s the whole community. It takes everyone to have success. Youth coaches, middle school coaches, fans, parents, students, all supporting us. It’s extremely humbling. we could not do it without all of them. That moment when the five seniors came off the floor altogether. We wanted to bring all five of them off together and have that. They talked about that when they were 12, 14, 15, 16 years old. They said it was going to happen this year, and to see it happen, is truly special. It’s an honor to lead these men. I couldn’t be more proud to call myself their head coach. They make me a better person. I hope I play a little part in making them great people too. Seasons like this are magical and we’re going to keep going.”
These two teams met earlier this year in Wellman with Mid-Prairie winning 65-50 to claim the outright River Valley Conference Championship. Mid-Prairie is looking for their first win at the state tournament since 2007. You can hear all of the action between the Golden Hawks and Panthers live on all KCII signals Tuesday, beginning with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show at 10a.m. and tip off at 10:30 from Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.