Column: This season was the setup

By Paul D. Bowker
Posted 3/10/21

This season was the setup. 

When you analyze the Mid-Prairie boys basketball season that concluded in February with a loss in the district finals to Camanche, that is the bottom line.

The …

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Column: This season was the setup

Posted

This season was the setup. 

When you analyze the Mid-Prairie boys basketball season that concluded in February with a loss in the district finals to Camanche, that is the bottom line.

The reality is this: The Golden Hawks won 15 games, got within two wins of a Class 2A state tournament berth and did it with just two seniors. One of them, post player Aiden Rath, was a starter.

The Golden Hawks are primed for a strong run in 2020-21.

I’m not just drinking the Kool-Aid.

Four starters are back and a strong bench returns for head coach Daren Lambert. Among the starters is forward Carter Harmsen, who scored 32 points, and added six rebounds and three steals in the season-ending 67-55 loss to Camanche. For a quarter, he destroyed them.

Perhaps if the Golden Hawks hadn’t missed 12-of-16 3-point shots that night, they would have been dancing to the 2A quarterfinals in Des Moines, just as Rath had done with Mid-Prairie’s baseball team last summer.

Perhaps if the Golden Hawks hadn’t jumped out to a 10-point lead four minutes into the game, thereby sounding the alarm clock for Camanche’s players, things may have turned out differently.

The Indians responded with a nine-point run in the opening quarter and cruised into halftime on a 13-2 run.

The frustration, the simple desperation, of such runs forces the opposing team into bad passes, low-percentage shots and mistakes.

Lesson learned.

It’s called postseason experience.

Kentucky and Kansas and Duke and North Carolina didn’t just start winning national championships. There was a learning process.

Clearly, the Golden Hawks are set up for a strong season next year. Their inside-out game is, at times, nearly impossible to defend. An opposing defense can’t sag into the paint because the Golden Hawks will begin target practice from the 3-point line and end a game in a matter of minutes. Guards Jack Pennington, Will Cavanagh and Alex Bean can all knock shots down from long range. Harmsen can hit the long shots and drive the line for a powerful move inside.

Pennington, a junior, has the type of precision that coaches dream about. His 102 assists not only led the River Valley South Conference, but he more than doubled the assist total of any other River Valley South player. Four other Golden Hawks also were No. 1 in River Valley South stat categories, including Harmsen  with 421 points.

The first four minutes of the game against Camanche were a clinic.

Go back to the opening game of the season at Williamsburg, and it was the same thing. The Raiders managed to pull out a 74-70 win in the game’s final minutes. The Golden Hawks quickly learned playing with a lead is more difficult than playing from behind.

That shouldn’t happen with a more experienced team next season.

After losing to Williamsburg, the Golden Hawks ran off five straight wins. They won six of seven games before losing to Camanche for the second time.

It’s time for the Golden Hawks to line up an extra tough schedule next year. Take on the best. Challenge everybody during the regular season. Then, cruise into the postseason with a swagger.

Grab a good seat. It should be fun.