Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – The final score of Friday’s River Valley Conference South Division opener against Mid-Prairie wasn’t worthy of a big celebration from Justin Liddle.

That doesn’t mean the first-year West Branch coach didn’t have plenty of reason to be happy with his team.

West Branch battled back from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit and had several chances to tie or take the lead in the final 20 seconds before falling to Mid-Prairie 57-53 in a RVC South thriller in West Branch.

“You always have to take a step back after a game and there are always things you can improve on but you have to be able to celebrate the things that you do well,” Liddle said. “I feel like there is a lot that we can be proud of in that game.”

West Branch (0-5) wasn’t able to secure its first win of the season but the Bears battled and put themselves in position to pull even after Kennedy Simpson cut the lead to 55-53 with a layup with 25 seconds remaining.

The Bears forced three turnovers in the next 20 seconds but couldn’t convert any of them into a bucket as Mid-Prairie (4-2) put the game away on a Nora Pennington layup in the final seconds.

“Getting down 12 or 13 in the fourth quarter you would have never have guessed that based on the amount of resiliency our girls had,” Liddle said. “They had a lot of fight in them and there are a lot positives to take from that.”

West Branch lost three of its first four games by 30 or more points but was in it from the opening tip on Friday.

The Bears led 21-18 late in the second quarter after an Alyse Klinkkammer 3-pointer but Mid-Prairie scored the final six points of the half on consecutive 3-pointers by Brooklyn Schneider and Morgyn Bender to take a 24-21 halftime lead.

West Branch took a 34-30 lead midway through the third quarter with a quick 5-0 burst that included a 3-pointer by senior Kylie Pickett and a Kya Montgomery basket.

“We came out at halftime ready to go,” Pickett said. “We were confident.”

Mid-Prairie took control with a 17-10 run that spanned just over three minutes and featured 3-pointers from Katelyn Harland, Schneider and Bender.

The 17-0 burst gave the Golden Hawks a 47-34 lead.

“That run that they went on in the third quarter hurt us,” Liddle said. “We started in zone because we had a lot of success with that the first half and when we went man we gave up some straight line drives to the rim, we got that corrected.”

West Branch never folded.

The Bears got trailed 52-37 with under six minutes to play but together a furious late rally.

Simpson hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Pickett buried a deep 3 to cut the lead to 52-46.

The sixth triple of the game by Pickett cut the Golden Hawk lead to 54-51 with 2:03 remaining.

“We were very aggressive,” Pickett said. “We were pressing and I think that tired them out.”

Pickett had a team-high 18 points for West Branch while Simpson had 14 points as the Bears made 14 3-pointers.

Klinkkammer had eight points for West Branch which returns to action next week when it hosts Class 2A fourth-ranked Regina.

“A close game we needed that,” Pickett said. “We know we could have won, we almost won and there were just a few things that didn’t go our way but I think we can gain a lot from this game.”

Mid-Prairie                           13  11  23  10  –  57

West Branch                        10  11  16  16  –  53   

Mid-Prairie (57) – Katelyn Harland 2-4 0-0 6, Olivia Swartzendruber 0-1 0-0 0, Harper Pacha 0-1 0-0 0, Jovi Evans 0-2 1-2 1, Brooklyn Schneider 7-10 2-2 19, Morgyn Bender 4-9 0-0 11, Nora Pennington 4-8 0-2 8, Brylee Gearhart 0-2 0-0 0, Callie Huber 5-9 2-3 12, Totals 22-46 5-9 57.

West Branch (53) – Alyse Klinkkammer 3-9 0-0 8, Kylie Pickett 6-13 0-0 18, Lexi Skay 1-6 0-0 3, Kennedy Simpson 5-15 0-0 14, Kya Montgomery 1-7 0-0 2, Madelyn Stout 1-6 0-0 2, Addi Schultes 2-4 1-2 5, Totals 19-60 1-2 53.

3-point field goals – WB 14-42 (Klinkkammer 2-7, Pickett 6-13, Skay 1-2, Simpson 4-13, Montgomery 0-1, Stout 1-5, Schultes 0-1), M-P 8-16 (Harland 2-3, Schneider 3-4, Bender 3-6, Pennington 0-3). Rebounds – WB 34 (Montgomery 10), M-P 34 (Huber 13). Turnovers – WB 15, M-P 20. Total fouls – WB 12, M-P 8. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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