The goal is to "make history." 

That’s the slogan on the Golden Hawk warmups, and it’s been on their minds since last season ended with a loss in the district final. 

On Tuesday, they made a little history, clinching the program’s first conference title since the River Valley Conference was formed in 2013. 

“It means a lot,” said Mid-Prairie senior Will Cavanagh. “This was one of the goals we set on the second day of practice. Being able to accomplish that just means so much to this team, it's something that we've been working so hard for.”

The Golden Hawks (18-0) seized the conference championship with a dominant performance, an 84-53 road win over Wilton (15-5), the second-place team in the RVC South. 

“It feels amazing,” senior Ethan Kos said. “It's definitely something that I'm glad we were able to accomplish this year and finish what we started.”

Carter Harmsen was ready from the opening tip on Tuesday. A hand in his face had no effect on the Golden Hawk senior’s 3-point accuracy, as he scored his first 12 from outside the arc. His fourth triple of the first half gave Mid-Prairie a 29-22 lead. 

“We shot really good tonight,” Harmsen said, “just moving it to the open man and making our shots.”

Harmsen finished with 24 points, four assists, and four steals. Mid-Prairie shot over 55 percent from the floor on the way to a season-high point total.

“It was one of those nights where everything was working,” Mid-Prairie coach Daren Lambert said. “But I think it's attributed to you guys making great decisions. It didn't seem like we were forcing bad shots. We were hitting shots in rhythm, and catching passes in rhythm. And then when the opportunities to drive came, because we were hitting some outside shots, we did a great job of driving and dumping off or finishing at the rim.”

Jack Pennington scored from all over the court. With an 11-8 lead, he answered a Caden Kirkman 3-pointer in kind on the other end. Then he drove to the left baseline and finished to increase the lead to 16-8. On Mid-Prairie’s next possession he showed off his floater, a high-arcing runner that dropped through the net. 

He finished with 21 points, five rebounds, and seven assists. 

Coach Daren Lambert said that they knew Pennington was capable of the big offensive night. 

“He's really never had to be in a position to go out and do that,” Lambert said. “So it was just great to see him have that success tonight. You can see him playing with confidence and the aggressiveness just keeps continuing.”

The Beavers scored five in a row to cut the Mid-Prairie lead to single digits at 41-32 early in the second half. Mid-Prairie allowed just one field goal during a 21-5 run that increased the lead to 62-37.

“We knew that our press was going to really wear them down,” Harmsen said. “We just knew we had to keep pushing it on and staying up, and that's what got us that 31-point win.”

Mid-Prairie closed the first half on a 7-0 run, capped by Alex Bean’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Bean finished with seven points and three steals. Kos had 10 points and six rebounds

Cavanagh had six assists and scored all nine of his points from the 3-point line. Mid-Prairie shot 13-of-24 from outside, led by Camron Pickard and Pennington, who were each 2-for-2. 

A conference championship is just the first box checked for the Golden Hawks, who have bigger goals ahead. 

“I think we've had it in our mind, since third or fourth grade, that we could be something special,” Pennington said. This whole group of guys is special, not just the senior class, and it's just been a special year.

“We knew we played well last year, but we let a couple games slip away and we weren't going to let that happen this year. I think we've done everything we wanted to do and a little bit more so far this year.”

Pennington said that the Golden Hawks wouldn’t be celebrating a conference championship until after another win over defending conference champion West Branch on Friday. 

“I know we've kind of won it right now, but to us it's not really over,” he said. “(West Branch) won it on our home court last year. They took a picture and made a big deal out of it and we’re going to go do the same thing to them. We’ve had that in the back of our minds all year and we’ve been waiting.”