WELLMAN

The second half of Saturday’s Class 3A playoff game had just begun when Mid-Prairie sophomore Nora Pennington swooped in for the kill.

She whacked the ball loose from Tipton guard Chloe Klabo, took it away and headed toward the hoop for a layup. Got ya.

“I love doing that. That’s my game,” Pennington said.

The steal and layup gave the Golden Hawks a 29-5 lead in a game they eventually won, 52-25.

In a season during which Nora’s older brother, Jack, is a dominant playmaker for Mid-Prairie’s unbeaten boys basketball team, Nora has emerged as one of the leading defensive girls in the River Valley South Conference. Her 62 steals rank among the top six in the conference and she is the top sophomore.

“That’s huge,” Golden Hawks head coach Danny Hershberger said of Pennington’s steal to begin the half. “Sets the tone for the second half right away. That’s what she does.”

And that was just the opening play of the second half. Pennington had a game-high four steals and the Golden Hawks shut out Tipton for the entire second quarter, a good part of the opening quarter and almost a minute of the third quarter.

Trailing 5-0 early, the Golden Hawks nailed down their first postseason win since 2019 by going on a 32-point run that went over portions of three quarters and left Mid-Prairie ahead by 27 points in the opening minute of the third quarter.

“The defensive effort tonight for really the first half was excellent,” Hershberger said. “That’s exactly what we needed to do is lock down on defense. The girls did a great job of pressuring them into some tough passes, stepping in the passing lanes and then when they did get shots off, limiting them to one shot. Just really proud overall of our defensive effort there.”

The Golden Hawks (14-8) have held an opponent under 25 points six times this season.

Next up is a regional semifinal game at 7 p.m. Wednesday against West Burlington (16-6), a second-place team in the SEISC South. The Falcons defeated Camanche 60-19 in a regional quarterfinal Saturday.

Senior forward Maddie Nonnenmann led the Golden Hawks against Tipton with 16 points and 8 rebounds. She scored 12 points in the first half, including a 3-pointer just before the half-ending buzzer sounded.

“We moved the ball really well on offense,” Hershberger said. “We got it inside-out and were able to knock down shots that were open.”

But this game was really about the defense. Nonnenmann had a game-high 7 blocks. Pennington helped lead a trapping defense that produced 15 Mid-Prairie steals. Cana Rediger, Landry Pacha and Maya Nonnenmann each had 3 steals.

“We run a 2-3 [zone defense] so that it makes us able to get a lot of steals and stuff,” Pennington said.

Mid-Prairie’s girls jumped off the bench in celebration of each play, including in the game’s final minutes when Josie Greiner, a junior, hit two consecutive 3-pointers. The second one turned into a 4-point play because she was fouled on the play.

“That was huge for us,” Hershberger said. “When you can bring someone off the bench and they can give you some instant offense like that, just really proud of her for being ready to go when she was called on.”