It was a happy Senior Night for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk girls and boys basketball teams at Tim Grady Gymnasium in Wellman Tuesday as they swept away the visiting Alburnett Pirates in a River Valley Conference doubleheader. The No. 12 in Class 3A Golden Hawk girls got the night started with a 65-43 win. A pair of runs, 18-1 and 15-2 in the first half, put the Hawks on in control 38-12 at halftime as they scored the victory. Golden Hawk head coach Jenny Hobbs joined the KCII Postgame show to talk about her seniors. “These seniors have played a lot of games in this gym. I didn’t worry about their nerves. They turned their nervousness into intensity. They came out and played really hard and that’s exactly what I expected from them. Alburnett can run-and-gun, they can hit threes, they can offensive rebound well. The kids put me at ease three minutes. I knew we were going to be alright tonight.”

Mid-Prairie won turnovers 27-17 and rebounding by three. Nine different Golden Hawks scored, led by 22 points from Jovi Evans. Morgyn Bender had 14 and Tessa Bombei 12. The Pirates got 13 points from Miranda Neighbor. Mid-Prairie is now 15-5 on the year and 11-2 in conference. The Hawks will meet Regina Thursday. Alburnett drops to 13-8 with the loss and finishes conference play at 8-6.

The Golden Hawk boys used a big second quarter run to grab a 74-54 win. The Hawks trailed 18-17 after the first, but outscored the Pirates 20-7 in the second, including a 17-5 run to build a 12 point lead at the break. Mid-Prairie won the second half 37-30 to secure the win. Following the contest, Golden Hawk head coach Daren Lambert joined the KCII Postgame Show to highlight his senior class. “It’s fun watching them grow. I saw them as seventh graders in the classroom. They’re great kids. They’re really fun to work with. They have a lot of personality and they really enjoy being with one another. They goof around with each other, but they also like competing with each other. They’ll give each other a hard time but they’re going to fight for each other. That’s what you want to see.”

Mid-Prairie won turnovers 16-14, the Pirates took rebounding by five. Seven different Hawks scored, five got to double figures, led by 21 points for Bryce Henry, 12 for Hudson Ehrenfelt and 11 each for Brooks Weber, Tristan Koller and Kale Miller. Hayden Gustafson led Alburnett with 20 points. Mid-Prairie moved to 14-5 with the win, 10-3 in the River Valley, while the Pirates plummet to 15-8 and 9-5 in the RVC. In a ceremony during the night, the Hawks honored seniors Katelyn Harland, Harper Pacha, Jovi Evans, Bryce Henry, Hudson Ehrenfelt, Cyris Christner, Clayton Davidson, Jordan Traetow and Kaden Kos.