Mid-Prairie eventually found its offense, but a slow start cost the Golden Hawks in a 66-51 loss at Camanche on Friday. 

Mid-Prairie fell behind 14-4 after one quarter. The Indians were efficient from behind the arc in the win, shooing 9-22 from the 3-point line. Jordan Lawrence was 6-8 from outside and led Camanche with 24 points. 

“Give credit to Camanche, they’re pretty aggressive in their defense and we struggled to get into a flow offensively,” Mid-Prairie coach Daren Lambert said.  

“And on the other end of the floor, they were hitting shots, contested threes. Which then kind of sped us up, as we were trying to get it all back in that first quarter and trying to play catch up. We weren’t really in a flow and I thought we weren’t as aggressive as we need to be.”

Mid-Prairie scored 36 points in the second half after trailing 31-15 at the half, but couldn’t close the gap. Carter Harmsen finished with 14 points and nine rebounds. Aidan Rath had 13 points and nine rebounds. 

“In the second half, we just played a little bit looser and a little quicker with our decision making, and just kind of attacked the rim, something we lacked in the first half,” Lambert said. “And the confidence grew in that second half there.”

Mid-Prairie learned that Camanche would be in its district when the postseason assignments were released on Friday. The Golden Hawks and Indians currently have the best records in 2A district nine and could potentially meet again in a district final. 

“Everyone in the locker room knew that that wasn’t our best game, probably one of the the poorer games we’ve played on the year,” Lambert said. “We knew that we could have an opportunity to see them again, and definitely want to see them again, as we think that we can be a much better team than what they saw the first time.”