Madison Dellamuth scored 21 points and the Prairie girls rolled over Linn-Mar, 53-34, Friday night in a Mississippi Valley Conference basketball game at Linn-Mar.

Prairie (7-3, 5-2) was looking to bounce back from a 46-23 loss at Dubuque Hempstead last Friday night that dropped the Hawks out of the Class 5A rankings.

“We’ve got to play better defense, play with more urgency on defense, and we have to forget about the poor performance at Hempstead,” Prairie Coach Steve Doser said before the game.

Mission accomplished.

Dellamuth canned all 10 of her free throw attempts in the second half to seal the victory. Courtney McCrary added 15 points and Cyerra Hutchins totaled nine points.

“Different kids did good things at different times,” summarized Doser.  Clutch free throw shooting (16 of 21) aided the Hawks’ cause “and we did a good job of hitting the boards” Doser said.  Prairie had a 32-27 edge on rebounding and limited its turnovers to 12.

Linn-Mar (4-6, 3-3) had only 11 turnovers and did have very balanced scoring. Eight Lions scored, all between two and six points. Courtney Major and Mykaela Brandt each had six points for the all-senior starting crew for Linn-Mar.

“We kept the tempo up and we want to keep pushing the ball up the floor and play our tempo,” stated Doser after the game.  “All girls have the green light to shoot and Madison gets us on a roll and this helps our whole team out.”

Though it was a total team effort for Prairie, Doser also cited the play of freshman Makenzie Stoffer, who finished with four points.

Doser mentioned the Hawks have many key matchups after the Christmas break, but Friday’s victory gives significant momentum into 2013.

“We have Wahlert at home; twice we matchup with Washington, Cedar Falls and Waterloo West, so there are plenty of key games ahead,” Doser said.

PRAIRIE (53): Taylor Moenk 0 0-0 0, Cyerra Hutchins 3 3-4 9, Haley Street 0 0-0 0, Alisa Weiland 1 0-1 2, Lynsey Altenhofen 0 0-0 0, Courtney McCrary 6 1-2 15, Olivia Usher 0 2-3 2, Madison Dellamuth 5 10-10 21, Rachel Shelangoski 0 0-0 0, Makenzie Stoffer 2 0-1 4. Totals 17 16-21 53.

LINN-MAR (34): Taylor Robertson 1 0-0 3, Hannah Yearling 1 1-2 4, Mykaela Brandt 3 0-3 6, Michal Christopher 0 0-0 0, Sara Strauel 2 0-0 4, Jenna Harms 0 0-0 0, Aryn Jones 1 0-0 2, Kristen Eiles 2  0-0 5, Emily Makinster 0 0-0 0, Courtney Major 2 2-2 6, Alexis Libenguth 1 2-2 4. Totals 13 5-9 34.

Halftime - Prairie 29, Linn-Mar 18. 3-point goals - Prairie 3 (McCrary 2, Dellamuth), Linn-Mar 3 (Robertson, Yearling, Eiles). Team fouls - Prairie 11, Linn-Mar 17. Fouled out - None.