Mid-Prairie can't slow No. 3 West Branch

Nonnennman lifts Golden Hawks to win at Anamosa

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 1/13/21

The Golden Hawks struggled to get anything going offensively in the first half of a 66-29 loss to 2A No. 3 West Branch on Friday. 

The Bears held Mid-Prairie to 3-22 shooting in the first …

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Mid-Prairie can't slow No. 3 West Branch

Nonnennman lifts Golden Hawks to win at Anamosa

Posted

The Golden Hawks struggled to get anything going offensively in the first half of a 66-29 loss to 2A No. 3 West Branch on Friday. 

The Bears held Mid-Prairie to 3-22 shooting in the first half and led 38-8 at the halftime break. Sasha Koenig scored 21 points for West Branch and was one of three Bears to make at least two 3-pointers, while the Golden Hawks were just 2-14 as a team from outside. 

“They really cranked up their defensive pressure there,” Mid-Prairie coach Danny Hershberger said. “Their physicalness bothered us a little bit to start the game. We didn’t handle it well and they were able to start getting kind of some run out layups

“They’re a really good team. They’re athletic, they’re quick and they made us pay for being a little bit timid, and, and not being as aggressive as we needed to be there at the start.”

Phelan Hostetler was 3-6 to lead Mid-Prairie with eight points. Maddie Nonnenmann and Myah Lugar each had five. 

“I think Phelan did a great job in the second half,” Hershberger said.  “I think we have to find ways to get the ball inside earlier in the games, that’s something we’ve been working on something that we’ll continue to work on

“I felt like tonight we made a mistake or two and then we kind of got down on ourselves and we have to bounce back from mistakes. You know, mistakes are going to happen in the basketball game. And we’ve got to move on. We have to learn from it.”

 

Golden Hawks run away with win at Anamosa

Mid-Prairie bounced back from its first back-to-back losses of the season with a 55-37 win at Anamosa on Saturday. 

The Golden Hawks were tied 24-24 with the Blue Raiders early in the third quarter before Maddie Nonnenmann scored 14 straight points.

“We knew that Anamosa was doing a good job of trying to keep the ball out of the lane and make us shoot outside shots, so we you know we learned to be intentional about making good passes and getting inside” Coach Danny Hershberger said.

”We were able to get it inside to Maddie. We made a lot of good passes and Maddie was able to finish around the basket for us in the third quarter.”

Nonnenmann was able to establish herself in good position under the basket and the last four points of her 14-0 run came on inbounds plays. Her shot off the glass with 48 seconds left in the third quarter put Mid-Prairie ahead 38-24.

Nonnenmann finished with 23 points on 9-14 shooting. Myah Lugar was 3-4 from the 3-point line for 13 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals. Amara Jones had eight assists and Phelan Hostetler had seven rebounds. Esther Hughes scored six points. 

 The Golden Hawks (6-6) trailed Anamosa (1-9) 17-8 after the first quarter, but allowed just 10 points over the next two quarters. 

“We didn’t start out the way we wanted to,” Hershberger said. “Our energy wasn’t very good, but we picked up our intensity on defense and we did a better job of moving our feet and getting in the passing lanes and that was the biggest difference for us, just our effort level on defense.”