Photo Courtesy of Hudl
The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls basketball teams traveled to West Branch for a River Valley Conference doubleheader Tuesday night.
The No. 13 in Class 3A Golden Hawk girls were a runaway winner 65-24. Mid-Prairie started fast with a 17-4 and were on top 21-6 after the first eight minutes. The Hawks won the second period 12-7 to lead 33-13 at half. Mid-Prairie outscored the Bears 32-11 after the break including an 18-0 run that lasted the entire fourth quarter. Mid-Prairie won turnovers 38-9, rebounding by seven and knocked down 11 threes as a team. The Golden Hawks were led by junior Morgyn Bender’s career night with 30 points, including a school record eight three pointers. She joined the KCII Postgame Show to talk about the win and her hot shooting night. “Tonight felt amazing. The past few games, I’ve struggled shooting and it felt great to see the ball go through the basket. (Tonight) is a personal record by far! That’s just crazy to me. (Favorite three) came in the second half, one of the corner threes, we drew the play up, it worked perfectly and I hit it. We worked together and during our warmups, vibes were high, we were dancing, having fun, so I think, that carried through and we wanted to go out and have fun. It felt great to see the whole team be involved. I love when the bench players get in and have fun. It gets the team important experience.”
Jovi Evans added 14 points and three threes of her own and Jeorgia Evans got to double figures with 10. Ava Burnett led the Bears with 12 points. The Hawks improved to 8-5 overall with the win and 6-2 in conference while West Branch drops to 6-8 and 2-6 respectively.
The boys contest was tight in the first half before the Bears found another gear after break in a 76-44 victory. The Golden Hawks were down 12-11 after one and the Bears led 33-26 at half. West Branch used a 23-5 run that spanned the full third quarter to pull away and put the game away. The Bears won turnovers 21-8, hit eight threes and outrebounded the Golden Hawks by 16 in the win. Jayden Harris led West Branch with a game high 33 points. Bryce Henry had 11 for the Golden Hawks. The Bears improve to 8-6 with the win, while Mid-Prairie falls to 8-4 with the loss.