Mid-Prairie boys defeat Wilton

The Mid-Prairie boys’ basketball team defeated Wilton at Wellman Tuesday, January 13, 70-61.
A combination of balanced scoring and free throws led to the win. Four Golden Hawk players scored in double digits, and the team hit 14 of 19 from the charity stripe.
Junior Tanner Miller led Mid-Prairie scoring with 22 points. Drew Miller scored 14 points, and Ryan Gent and Kaleb Duwa scored 10 each. Yoder led the team in rebounds with 14.
Mid-Prairie head coach Don Showalter said, “We played with a lack of energy in the first half and were a step slow for the first half to a very good and quick Wilton team. I thought they beat us to the basket on the dribble and beat us to the rebounds in the first half.
“The second half we played a much better game with a sense of urgency. We switched some defenses which took Wilton out of their rhythm they had in the first half. They scored 23 points in the first quarter alone, but then we held them to 25 points for the entire second half. We had some huge free throws down the stretch from Ryan Gent, Drew Yoder, and Abe Kos.
“Our transition was better in the second half as we got open for some lay ups off the break. Tanner Miller took the ball hard to the basket and got some layups as well. Kaleb Duwa hit a very big three-pointer late in the game to put us up by two and then the free throws put the game away.
“Drew Yoder got stronger as the game went along and ended up with some strong defensive rebounds. We probably did not get as much help off the bench as we would have liked due to the pace of the game – Cody Bontrager, Quinn Hollan, Colton Wilson, Micah Berg, Christian Boehmer and Mark Aldeman all had some valuable minutes for us.”
Mid-Prairie stats: Abe Kos 2 3-4 8, 1 3-pointer, 1 rebound, 2 steals, 1 assist; Ryan Gent 3 4-6 10, 6 rebounds, 1 assist; Tanner Miller 10 1-1 22, 1 3-pointer 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists; Drew Yoder 5 4-4 14, 14 rebounds, 3 assists; Micah Berg 1 2-2 4, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist; Kaleb Duwa 4 0-2 10, 2 3-pointers 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 5 assists; Colton Wilson 1 0-0 2, 1 assist; Cody Bontrager 2 rebounds, 1 assist.