The Mid-Prairie boys basketball team was one second away from their first victory of the season Friday night at West Liberty, but it was the Comets who found some late magic to stun Mid-Prairie 41-40.

The game was a defensive battle in the first half with West Liberty holding a 9-8 lead after one quarter and the two teams tied at 14 going into the halftime break. In the second half things continued to seesaw back and forth with each team holding an advantage of no more than five points.

Down the stretch each team made big plays with the game on the line, Mid-Prairie got a big three point goal from Nolan Faselt and a layup from Derek Rich that gave them a late one point lead. West Liberty got an answer from Brady Smith and his three point play. With under a minute left to play and trailing by one, Mid-Prairie’s Caleb Statler was fouled and he stepped to the line and hit both free throws to give the Hawks the lead. Seth Feldman missed a three at the other end for West Liberty and Statler gathered in the rebound and was fouled with 3.1 seconds left in the game. Statler converted his second of two free throws to put Mid-Prairie up 40-38 in the final moments. West Liberty advanced the ball to midcourt and called timeout, setting up one desperation play from half court with 1.2 seconds left. On the game’s final play Parker Feldman took the inbound pass, and in motion, jumped, spun toward the basket and launched a three pointer that banked in as time expired.

Mid-Prairie was led in the game by 12 points from Nolan Faselt, Ben Stone had 11 and Caleb Statler added 10 for Mid-Prairie. With the loss the Golden Hawks are 0-5 on the year and in conference play. Mid-Prairie will be back in action this afternoon when they travel to Durant. You can hear all of the action on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com as part of a doubleheader with the Washington HyVee pregame show on the air at 1:30.