A dominant second-half performance from Maddie Nonnenmann wasn’t quite enough for Mid-Prairie to overcome a poor second quarter in a 54-47 loss to 2A No. 13 West Branch on Friday. 

Nonnenmann was limited by foul trouble in the first half and scored her first points of the game to cut the deficit to 33-23 early in the second half. 

She scored 20 of Mid-Prairie’s final 26 points, trimming the West Branch lead to 44-42 with a basket off of a nice pass from Landry Pacha.

“We just want her to be aggressive like that,” Mid-Prairie coach Danny Hershberger said. “We felt like she had a mismatch that we wanted to take advantage of. She did a great job of getting to the basket and getting layups for us.”

West Branch answered the 13-2 run with a pair of baskets from 6-foot-2 center Delaynie Luneckas. Kylie Pickett’s fourth 3-pointer pushed the lead back up to nine. 

Luneckas finished with 17 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocked shots. 

"She's been one of the top players in the conference for a couple years now,” Hershberger said. “I thought we did a better job in the second half adjusting, either making sure we get by or stopping up short before she can block our shot. It took a little bit to figure out how to adjust and be successful against her, but I thought we did a better job in the second half.”

Maya Nonnenmann scored the final points of the first quarter to pull Mid-Prairie within a point at 12-11. But the Golden Hawks would not score for nearly four minutes to start the second quarter.

Halli Hershberger ended the drought to make it 19-13, but West Branch outscored Mid-Prairie 17-6 in the quarter. 

Amara Jones had seven points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals. Nora Pennington had four points and four steals. Pacha had four points and six rebounds.