The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk girls and boys basketball teams ended the calendar year with a pair of wins over the visiting Durant Wildcats Friday at Tim Grady Gymnasium in Wellman. The No. 12 in Class 3A Golden Hawk girls started the night with a 63-25 victory over the Wildcats. The Hawks were up 16-10 after one, but shifted to high gear in the middle frames, outscoring Durant 35-5 in total in the second and third to lead 35-12 at half and 51-15 after three, enacting the running clock and getting the win. The Golden Hawks shot a blistering 57% from the floor, winning rebounds 32-15 and turnovers 33-20. Jovi Evans led the Hawks with a game high 23 points and six rebounds. Morgyn Bender scored a dozen with four steals and Brooklyn Schneider 11 points. Katelyn Harland had five assists. Evans joined the KCII Postgame show to talk about the win. “We needed to come out hard and fast and I think we did a better job with that especially on the defensive end. We kept up the defense all game. I’d like to say that I’m pretty fast so I think that helps with rebounding. When I do crash the boards, I do it with a purpose. I hit a couple of threes tonight which is a little different. Other than that, I scored on fast-breaks, layups, layups, layups and more layups!”
The Hawks are 5-1 going into Christmas, unbeaten in the River Valley, Durant is 1-5 and winless in conference.
The boys game saw the Golden Hawks face down a Durant challenge 58-53. Mid-Prairie won the first quarter 16-9 and kept that margin the rest of the night, on top 33-25 at half, and 40-33 after three. The Golden Hawks won the boards by 10 and turnovers 13-11. Three Hawks got to double figures with Brooks Weber’s 16 points best, Carson Humphrey added 12 and Kale Miller 10. Miller joined the KCII Postgame Show live to talk about the win. “For us boxing out is important. Deflections for us on defense are big. They usually kill the other team’s momentum. We are doing a good job of passing and sharing the ball.”
The Golden Hawks stand at 5-0 on the year and 3-0 in conference, Durant is 3-3 overall 1-3 in the RVC. The Hawks are back on the floor January 3rd when they travel to Solon.