The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls basketball teams locked up their fifth straight wins Tuesday night, sweeping a River Valley Conference doubleheader against the Durant Wildcats in Wellman. The Golden Hawk girls were a 70-39 winner. Mid-Prairie stormed through a 34-9 run in the first half to lead 42-20 at the break. The Hawks outscored the Wildcats 28-19 after half to secure the win. Mid-Prairie forced 27 Durant turnovers, won rebounding 38-24 and finished with 18 steals, 12 assists and connected on nine threes. A trio got to double figures, led by Morgyn Bender’s career high 21 points, Brooklyn Schneider scored 15 and Tessa Bombei 11. Callie Huber had 10 boards and Olivia Swartzentruber three assists. Bender and Schneider joined the KCII Postgame Show to talk about the win.
Morgyn Bender said, “We like to be able to have multiple people scoring and not just keep the ball on one side or with one person. (Getting so many blocks), the key is to just jump high! It feels good to block someone, it just pumps us up!”
Brooklyn Schneider said, “I hit a few threes and I was trying to drive a lot. I was able to get to the free throw line. We all are trying to work as hard as we can on defense to get steals. We have a very good, athletic, group of girls so it’s great that we can be aggressive on defense. It’s hard for other teams to stop us because everyone is a threat!”
Allison Toft had 18 to lead Durant. The win moves Mid-Prairie to 13-3 overall and 8-1, second in the River Valley, Durant is 9-7 and 3-5 in the league.
For the Golden Hawk boys it was a demolition of Durant 94-57. Mid-Prairie started the game with a 12-3 run to lead 24-15 after one and used a 9-0 second quarter run to build a 49-29 halftime lead. Mid-Prairie outscored Durant 45-28 after half, including a 28 point fourth quarter. The Golden Hawks won turnovers 19-6, rebounding by 12, had 10 players score and knocked down 14 threes as a team. Four got to double figures, led by Bryce Henry with 26 points and five rebounds, Ace Peck went for 19, Brady Weber 13 points, six assists and five steals and Brooks Weber 11 points. Henry joined the KCII postgame show to talk about the win.
Henry said, “I just came out tonight with confidence. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten my shot back. Tonight felt really good. We have to shoot really well, that’s what it takes, and we did that. When we’re doing that, it’s electric! It’s really fun to play and watch everyone have success. In our press, we knew we had to be aggressive, run and work hard. We did that. (Right now) chemistry-wise, we’re all on the same page. We know what we need to do. We know what the job is and we’ve been getting it done, and we’re going to continue to do that!”
Durant was led by 13 points from Kayden Kerr. The Golden Hawk boys are 14-2 overall, 8-1, second in the River Valley. Durant falls to 3-13 and remains winless in league play. The Hawks are next in action Friday when they travel to Wilton.