Mid-Prairie basketball teams face West Liberty and Durant

Both Mid-Prairie basketball teams won over West Liberty at home Friday, Dec. 16. The girls had a final score of 63-23 and the boys ended their contest with a 60-49 score.

The girls would take control of the scoring for the first 3 1/2 minutes of the first quarter going up 11 points before allowing West Liberty to score two.

Mid-Prairie would answer back with two more before West Liberty added another two while the Golden Hawks would end the quarter by scoring an additional four to end the first quarter up 17-4.

Mid-Prairie would started the second quarter strong scoring 18 points and holding West Liberty back to just adding six more to put the score at 35-10 at the half.

It would be all Mid-Prairie in the third as they would score 10 points within the first two minutes of the quarter, enabling a continuous clock while scoring another four and only giving up four points the entire frame putting the score at 49-14.

West Liberty would work on eating away at their deficit in the fourth quarter by scoring nine, but Mid-Prairie would make sure they secured their victory by scoring 14 points to end the game in their favor.

Ali Butters led the team in scoring with a season-best of 20 points. Shae Becker scored 12 points, Addie Rath added nine and Caitlyn Riggan scored six. Scoring four points each were Anna Vilovchik, Ireland Hostetler and Delaney Smith and scoring two points apiece were Kessa Jones and Lanie Bowlin.

For the boys, their win is the first time in three years they have won two in a row as well as two games in a season.

The only time the boys trailed their game was in the first quarter when they were down seven to nothing before scoring and while still behind, they would come back and tie the game after the first quarter at 13 all.

Mid-Prairie wouldn?t look back in the second quarter as they scored an additional 11 to West Liberty?s seven to make the score 31-20 at the half.

Both teams would be close in scoring in the third and fourth quarters but Mid-Prairie would hold on to get the win. Caleb Statler led the team in scoring with 19 points followed by Carter Reinier with 14, Cary Schaefer with 10, Brad Tornow scored eight, Tom Butters added six and Derek Rich had one bucket from outside the arc for three points.

The two teams would play host to Durant Saturday, Dec. 17, where the girls would win their third-straight game by a final score of 45-32 and the boys lost 48-53.

The scoring was tight for the girls in the first half as Mid-Prairie would be down by one point after the first quarter 8-9, but would take the lead at the half going up 15-14.

The Golden Hawks would take over in the third quarter adding 16 to Durant?s 11 and would score another 14 in the final frame and giving up seven points to Durant to get the win.

Rath would lead in scoring with 17 points followed by Butters with 11, Hostetler scored eight, Becker added five and Vilovchik scored four.

For the boys, Durant would have the lead after the first quarter 3-10, but Mid-Prairie would respond in the second quarter scoring 20 points to Durant?s 12 to have a one-point lead at the half.

M-P would add an additional 12 after the break and would hold Durant back to just nine to be ahead 35-31 but Durant would score 22 in the final quarter and only allow Mid-Prairie to score 13 handing the Golden Hawk boys the loss.

Both Tornow and Butters scored 13 points in the game, Caleb Statler added nine, Rich contributed seven and Kyle Miller scored six points. Butters also had 10 rebounds and four steals in the game and Tornow had one rebound, three assists and five steals.