Photo Courtesy of MP Sports Social Media (Nicole Miller)
The Mid-Prairie boys and girls basketball teams wrapped up the River Valley Conference portion of their schedule Friday night with a road trip to Iowa City Regina to meet the Regals. The Golden Hawk boys scored a huge win, spoiling Regina’s undefeated conference season 67-58, to stay alive in the championship chase. The Regals were up 11-10 after one, but Mid-Prairie closed the half on a 9-0 run to take a 28-24 lead to break they wouldn’t give up the rest of the night. Regina climbed back within two at the end of the third on a three quarter court heave from Tate Wallace, but Mid-Prairie didn’t fade, buoyed by huge shot making down the stretch from Bryce Henry and Brady Weber, the Golden Hawks found a way. After the game, Henry and Weber joined the KCII Postgame Show to talk about the win.
Henry said, “Any open shot I have the most confidence in. My confidence never differs, it’s always at a high. You just have to have that dawg in you. You know it’s time to make a big time play and you have to step up, and all of our guys did that tonight! We knew it was going to be a dogfight. We knew we had to be stronger than them. This was a big win. You can probably see it on our faces. We were pretty excited for this one!”
Weber continued, “We couldn’t let them take the momentum away. We knew we were the better team. We played great defense, we boxed out, we just had to stick to the fundamentals and not let their runs phase us. My teammates gave me great looks. I’m trying to use my quickness to get to the rim and give my teammates open looks. I know when I drive the ball the defense collapses and we have great shooters Brooks (Weber), Bryce (Henry), Ace (Peck), Hudson (Ehrenfelt) all hit big shots tonight. Our big men also do a great job of looking for the ball. This is my favorite win. We really wanted this one, we were really locked in. This was so fun bringing the waters out in the locker room.”
Mid-Prairie won turnovers 9-5 and rebounding by two. The Hawks put three in double figures, led by 22 points from Henry, 18 in the second half, 11 in the final four minutes, with four total threes. Brady Weber posted 14 points, 10 after half. Ace Peck scored 10 total. The Regals hit 11 threes as a team and got 17 points from Will Litton. Mid-Prairie is now 16-4 on the year, 10-2 in the River Valley, as the Regina drops to 17-3 overall and 10-1 in conference. The Regals take on West Liberty Tuesday, if the Comets get the win, Mid-Prairie earns a share of the RVC South Championship.
The girls contest saw No. 2 Regina jump out to an early lead, the Golden Hawks threaten down the stretch, but the Regals held them off for a 53-45 win. Regina was up 14-6 after eight minutes and 28-17 at half. The margin stayed at 11, 39-28 going to the fourth. Mid-Prairie would get as close as six in the final minute, but Regina kept the Hawks at arms length to collect the win. Regina won turnovers 22-14 and rebounding 39-34. Addie McLaughlin led Regina with 21 points, 16 in the first half. Golden Hawk leaders were seniors Callie Huber and Brylee Gearhart who combined on 32 points and 20 rebounds. The Regal win locks up their fourth consecutive RVC South title as they stay unbeaten at 11-0 in conference and improve to 19-1 on the year. The Hawks fall to 15-5 and 9-3 in conference. The Golden Hawk girls are back on the court for regionals next week, the Mid-Prairie boys host Fairfield Tuesday.