Mid-Prairie’s historic season comes to an end

DES MOINES — Maybe it wasn’t meant to be.

With a historic 24 straight wins heading into the state tournament, Mid-Prairie had just one final goal in mind, to hoist a state championship trophy.

That dream was crushed Tuesday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the Class 2A state tournament inside Wells Fargo Arena.

In a clash between River Valley South and North foes, it was Monticello edging Mid-Prairie 46-43 in the first round bout.

The loss ends a magical season for Mid-Prairie, in which the Golden Hawks along with their school record 24 straight wins, secured conference, district, and substate titles for their first state tournament appearance in 12 years.

For Mid-Prairie senior Carter Harmsen and junior Alex Bean, it’s not how they wanted it to end, but it’s been a ride they will never forget.

“It’s been great,” Harmsen said. “The community's been on our back. We brought joy to all of them hopefully. It sucks that it came to an end the way it did, but it was a great journey.”

“It’s been amazing,” Bean said. “It’s been something that I’ll always remember.”

An emotional Daren Lambert, Mid-Prairie’s head coach, struggled to hold back the tears expressing how proud he is of his players this season.

“Extremely proud,” Lambert said. “So much love for those guys and what they’ve accomplished throughout their entire careers. You couldn’t ask for anything more.”

The game was always in grasp, but Monticello did just enough to survive in the end.

Mid-Prairie senior guard Will Cavanagh connected on a deep ball with just under three seconds left to make it a one point game, 44-43, but it wouldn’t suffice.

Cavanagh had to intentionally foul and with 1.6 ticks left, Monticello’s Ian Temple converted a pair of free throws all but sealing the victory.

It was anyone game in the fourth quarter, but the Golden Hawks held the reins heading into the final quarter of play.

After being outscore 27-18 in the first half, 20-7 in the second quarter, the pressure was mounting for Mid-Prairie.

They answered the call.

Yet again Mid-Prairie showed its capability to use an enormous run to take control of games.

The Golden Hawks played suffocating defense in the third quarter, holding the Panthers scoreless with a 15-0 period to take a 33-27 lead. It was their largest since the beginning of the second quarter.

“On our end, we had a really good third quarter,” Lambert said. “It was just two good teams going back and forth, which is what you expect when your at state. We knew it was going to be that type of battle. Unfortunately, ran out of time on us today.”

Just over a minute into the final period, Mid-Prairie junior Alex Bean connected on a pair of free throws to extend the Golden Hawk lead, 35-27, but it would be their last points scored for over four and a half minutes.

“We came out really well in the third quarter,” Harmsen said. “Again, like in the first half, we kind of fell apart there in the fourth. We started taking bad shots again and we weren’t really finishing. Just lazy turnovers.”

Beginning at the 5:34 mark, Monticello started to chipped away at the lead. For the next three minutes, the Panthers used a 10-0 run to retake the lead, 37-35. Monticello’s Tate Peterson, with a Will Cavanagh hand in his face, connected on his third an fourth 3-point shots to end the run.

“My teammates trusted in me and I trusted in myself,” Peterson said. “My coaches trusted in me. They all know I’m going to take the shot and they trust me. I might as well just shoot it.”

Mid-Prairie senior Justice Jones would connect on a pair from the line to tie the game at 37, but that’s as close as they would come as the Panther’s Preston Ries broke the stalemate with a three ball with 1:09 left to go.

The Panthers would hit six free throws in the final minute of the game to stave off the Golden Hawks and end their tournament run.

Mid-Prairie shot better than Monticello, 50.0%-35.7%, hit three more free throws, and won the rebounding battle, 23-21, but still fell in the contest as the Panthers hit six more threes, nine in total.

Harmsen finishes his high school basketball career with 11 points and eight rebounds for the Golden Hawks. Cavanagh ends his career with nine points. Bean tallied seven points. Seniors Jackson Pennington and Ethan Kos scored five each. Justice Jones added four in his final game. Camron Pickard chipped in two.

Peterson, who is Monticello’s only returning starter from the Panthers 2021-22 tournament squad finished with a game-high 19 points.

The quarterfinal contest between the two River Valley teams was their second meeting. On Feb. 11, in their final regular season game, the Golden Hawks picked up a 65-50 win over the Panthers to mark their 21 win of the season. The victory tied a then school record.

This time around it was Monticello winning when it mattered most.

Monticello (22-3), who is the sixth seed, will face off with No. 2 seeded Rock Valley (20-5) in the semifinals at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday. Rock Valley defeated Jesup (19-6) 75-61 for a spot in the semifinal. The Class 3A Championship is set for 3 p.m. on Friday.

On the other side of the bracket, Central Lyon (23-2) will matchup with Pella Christian (19-6) for a spot in Friday’s championship. Central Lyon defeated Red Oak (18-8) 68-34 to move on. Pella Christian downed Roland-Story (22-3) to advance.

Mid-Prairie will have to settle for watching the rest of the Class 2A tournament, but Lambert says this year will live on in Golden Hawk basketball lore.

“I know it’s not the trophy sitting in the locker room that they want, but I said a couple days, 10 or 15 years from now you’ll understand what they’ve done for us,” Lambert said. “I can see it. They can’t yet because they’re kids. Their living in the moment. You look in the stands and future Mid-Prairie basketball players sitting there and taking all this in and being a part of the environment. It’s not the way we wanted it to end, but hopefully we lit a fire under some of those younger kids.”