Golden Hawks soar over Washington

WELLMAN - The lack of practice time showed early in Mid-Prairie's home girls nonconference basketball game against Washington High School Thursday, but things warmed up in the second half and the Golden Hawks registered a 47-31 win.

Mid-Prairie led 10-2 after the first quarter and 17-9 at halftime, but it was 34-22 after the third quarter.

'It feels pretty good to come off of such a long break and get a win,” said Shae Becker, who had just two points at halftime, but finished with 12. Mid-Prairie teammate Myah Lugar had a game-high 15 points as she hit four threes and converted an old-fashioned three-point play. She also had 10 rebounds. Kessa Jones had eight points, five steals and three assists.

'We always get up for this game because they are so close and we play them in all the other sports,” Becker said. 'The message at halftime was work the ball and get better shots and that is what we did.”

Olivia Pacha scored the only Demon points of the first quarter and scored again right before the halftime buzzer. She had a team-high 10 points. Teammate Addison Six returned from an injury with a mask on to protect a broken nose and netted eight points.

MP coach Stephen Bender was happy with the 30 second-half points. 'That's about where we should be at in a half. We had good looks in the first half, we just didn't knock them down. I was happy with our defense, only giving up 31 is good. We shot a lot better in the second half and ended up 43 percent from the field for the game.”

Mid-Prairie has 12 assists on 17 made baskets.

Mid-Prairie improved to 11-7 and hosts River Valley Conference foe West Branch tonight.

'We knew it would be a little sloppy and we were,” WHS coach Shannon Rugg said. 'We were not aggresive. We got beat by a better team. We have to do a better job of putting the ball in the hole. Until then, we have to get better on defense. Pacha and Six played hard and knocked some shots down. We have to keep fighting and playing hard and good things will happen.”

Washington falls to 6-10 and hosts Ft. Madison tonight.