The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls basketball teams came up short in both ends of a River Valley Conference doubleheader Friday night on the road at West Branch. The No. 3 ranked Bears won the girls portion of the night 66-29. The Bears took control of the game early, putting together a 21-2 run that lasted the entire first quarter. They would outscore the Golden Hawks 17-6 in the second quarter to take a 38-8 lead into the halftime break. The Bears enacted the continuous clock with about five minutes remaining in the third frame and finished the win. The Bears put four in double figures, led by 21 from Sasha Koenig. Mid-Prairie was led by Phelan Hostetler’s eight points. The Golden Hawks were outrebounded by 15 and committed 28 turnovers. West Branch is now 9-1 with the win. Mid-Prairie falls to 5-6.

The Golden Hawk boys saw an 11 point lead evaporate late as No. 13 West Branch rallied on their home floor to beat the Hawks 44-41. It was a defensive struggle early with Mid-Prairie suffering through a seven and a half minute drought from the floor to start the game, trailing 8-4 after one period. At half, the Bears advantage was 18-16. The third quarter belonged to Aidan Rath. The Golden Hawk big man controlled the inside and the game as he posted 14 of his team high 16 points in the quarter to go along with six rebounds in the frame. He helped Mid-Prairie build their lead to as many as 11 with six minutes left in the contest. The tide turned when he got in foul trouble and the Bears capitalized, going on a 11-0 run to erase the deficit and turned it into a 16-2 run in total to score the come from behind win. After the game, Golden Hawk head coach Daren Lambert talked about the night. “Defense was what we were going to hang our hat on tonight and giving up 44 points usually puts you in position to win the game. Unfortunately tonight on the offensive end we struggled for a couple of quarters. We have had different guys step up on different nights and that’s been what has made us fairly successful so far this year. We aren’t limited to just one style of play. Overall I’m pleased with how the guys responded tonight when adversity hit. Aidan Rath needed a game like this. He got off to a slow start this year because of ankle injury and a night like tonight will help him get his confidence back. He had a big game here last year and that set the tone for the rest of the season. The locker rooms are fairly close here at West Branch, so we paused and listened to their celebration. That’s enough motivation. We know we want to be at the top of the conference. Our message was we know we will see them again and we can get that job done if we go out and do the right things.”

To go along with 16 points, Rath pulled down nine boards. Carter Harmsen got to double figures with 13 points. Jeff Bowie led the Bears with 17 points. West Branch takes control of first place, remaining unbeaten overall and in the league at 9-0. The loss is the first in the RVC for the Hawks as they fall to 5-2 overall, 5-1 in conference. Mid-Prairie is back on the floor Saturday when they travel to Anamosa.