Photo Courtesy of Social Media
The Mid-Prairie boys and girls basketball teams traveled to West Liberty for the first varsity doubleheader of the year Tuesday. The Golden Hawk girls dropped their first contest of the year 61-38. West Liberty started quickly, opening the game on a 7-0 run and turning that into a 16-9 lead after the first period. The Comets would grow the lead to 18 at 32-14 at half, thanks to a 16-5 run that spanned the entire second frame. The Hawks won the third quarter 10-8, but would not get closer than a 14 point margin down the stretch, as the shorthanded Comets, who only list six players on their varsity girls lineup pulled away down the stretch, outscoring Mid-Prairie 21-14 in the final period to take the win. After the contest, Mid-Prairie head coach Danny Hershberger talked about what he saw as the difference. “We knew what West Liberty was going to do, they like to trap and mix their defenses up. They like to swipe at the ball and play physical with pressure. Our defense played well, we made them work for their shots and they are a good team, they hit some of those shots. We have to improve our response on offense and work on getting a good shot ourselves. Nora Pennington came out and was aggressive. She gave us offense early in the game when we needed it. Maya Nonnenmann is that girl that can give you a spark off the bench. She did that tonight and that’s her role this season.”
Macy Daufeldt led West Liberty with 24 points, Finley Hall added 18. The Comets outrebounded the Hawks by 11 and won the turnover battle 20-16. Mid-Prairie was led by 10 points from Maddie Nonnenmann and nine from Nora Pennington. The Comets are 2-0 on the year while Mid-Prairie falls to 1-1.
The Mid-Prairie boys got the season started in a big way Tuesday, rolling to a 66-20 victory on the road. The Hawks started the game on a 14-2 run and found themselves with a 24-7 lead after the first period. Things only got better from there as Mid-Prairie held the Comets completely off the scoreboard for the next 15 plus minutes of game action, running in 35 straight points to take a 44-7 lead into the half and enact a running clock. The lead would grow to as many as 49 after the break as every Golden Hawk player saw the floor in the second half. After the game, Mid-Prairie head coach Daren Lambert talked about the effort from his team. “We put a lot of emphasis on the defensive end this year. A lot of teams when they scout us are probably going to start with our offensive weapons and we can shoot from the outside and get to the rim but these guys have put a focus in on the defensive end of the floor because sometimes the offense isn’t going to show up. When we held them scoreless for that period of time we rebounded well, we were in good help position, we played great team basketball. Great defense lots of times leads to easy offense. Carter Harmsen had 17 points. Camron Pickard had 12 off the bench, Shawn Dodds had 10 off the bench, Alex Bean had nine. It’s great to see those guys come off the bench for us and give valuable minutes. They would start for a lot of other teams around the state. I say this all time but I don’t think of them as substitutes, they are reinforcements.”
The Hawks dominated all aspects of the game, turning West Liberty over 17 times, while only committing 10 of their own, outrebounding the Comets by 15, while nine different Mid-Prairie players scored. The Golden Hawk offense was led by Carter Harmsen with 15 points including three dunks. Camron Pickard had 12, Alex Bean 11 and Shawn Dodds 10. With the win, the Golden Hawks are 1-0 on the year. The Mid-Prairie boys and girls take the floor again Friday when they host Tipton.