Golden Hawk season ends with frustrating loss

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 2/17/21

Foul trouble plagued Mid-Prairie in a 49-41 season-ending loss at Central Lee on Saturday. 

When Maddie Nonnenmann was in the game, especially alongside Phelan Hostetler, the Golden Hawks …

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Golden Hawk season ends with frustrating loss

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Foul trouble plagued Mid-Prairie in a 49-41 season-ending loss at Central Lee on Saturday. 

When Maddie Nonnenmann was in the game, especially alongside Phelan Hostetler, the Golden Hawks looked dominant. But both were limited by early foul trouble, and Nonnenmann barely played in the regional quarterfinal game. 

The Golden Hawks held the top scorer in 3A to just 4-13 shooting, but Mya Merschman did a good job crashing into Mid-Prairie defenders, drawing fouls, and grabbing offensive rebounds. 

Nonnenmann fouled out with seven points and three assists. Myah Lugar and Nora Pennington each finished with four fouls and three more players had three. 

“We were in foul trouble most of the night, and I felt like we got called for a lot of touch stuff that wasn’t super consistent, but at the same time, you have to deal with that,” Danny Hershberger said after the game. 

“And I thought our girls handled it really well. I thought our mental toughness was fantastic. I thought the girls that came in and, and had to fill some roles that they might not have usually, and did an excellent job.”

Esther Hughes led Mid-Prairie with 12 points off of the bench. She also had two steals and just one turnover, despite dealing with a sprained ankle which kept her out of the practices leading up to Saturday’s game. 

“You know, it felt pretty good at shoot around,” Hershberger said. So we decided to give it a go today. And she stepped up for us and was a huge part of keeping us in the game and keeping us in the lead. We’re just really proud of her effort tonight.”

Hughes scored the last four points of the first half to give Mid-Prairie a 17-15 lead at the break. Central Lee went on a 10-0 run in the third quarter, but Hostetler made back-to-back shots in the fourth quarter to give the Golden Hawks a 30-29 lead.

Central Lee scored 12 points from the foul line during a 20-11 run to end the game. 

Despite picking up the early fouls, Hostetler remained a defensive presence, blocking four shots. She shot 5-7 from the floor to finish with 10 points in her final game. Lugar led the Golden Hawks with six rebounds and three steals. She also scored five points. 

Amara Jones had five points and a game high four assists. 

In addition to the 23-12 foul discrepancy, Mid-Prairie hurt itself with 27 turnovers to Central Lee’s 14. The Golden Hawks also gave up too many second-chance points. 

Merschman and Alivia Myhre combined to shoot just 7-24 for the Hawks, but grabbed 10 offensive rebounds and scored 16 points from the foul line. Central Lee had only five total assists and no player had more than one. 

Mid-Prairie’s season came to an end despite shooting 42 percent from the field, while allowing 27.3 percent on defense. 

“You know, basketball can be a long season, it can be a grind at times,” Hershberger said. “It’s over winter, it’s not nice weather and these girls did a great job of making it fun to come to practice every day, to come to games every day.

“They overcame a lot. There were times where we played four games in five days, or we played three games without a practice. They’ve had to deal with a lot. 

“And I’m just super proud of the way they’ve handled everything throughout this entire year and the mental toughness we showed not only tonight but throughout the year to just kind of adapt to whatever the situation is thrown at us and make the best of it. So I’m really proud of our girls and I’m going to miss this group.”

 

Looking ahead

The Golden Hawks should be in a good position to take a step forward next season, losing just two seniors to graduation. Hershberger had a regular eight-player rotation which included four juniors, a sophomore and a freshman. 

“We return a lot of girls that have a lot of varsity experience,” Hershberger said. “We’re excited about the girls we have coming back, some of them have played varsity for a couple years now and, and others have got a little bit of experience this year. 

Leading scorer and rebounder Maddie Nonnen-mann will be a senior next year. Amara Jones led the Golden Hawks in assists and steals as a sophomore. 

“We’re going to be looking for girls to step into some bigger roles next year as we go along,” Hershberger said, “but we’re excited about what the future has for us.”