Finally, a buzzer-beater that went in Mansfield’s favor! Drew Venter’s ten-foot jumper
was good as the buzzer sounded, allowing Mansfield to tie the Stoughton Black Knights at 50-
all and send the game into overtime on Friday at Stoughton. Unfortunately for the Hornets,
foul trouble and Stoughton’s size ruined Mansfield’s tournament hopes in a 67-62 OT loss.
This was a game between two evenly matched teams, albeit two teams with different styles of
play. Stoughton is very big and very physical. Mansfield is very much guard-driven and quick.
Stoughton’s game plan was to pound the ball in low, which created much of Mansfield’s foul
trouble over the course of the game. Mansfield tried to create havoc with its quickness,
defending the passing lanes and swarming to double teams when the ball went inside as well
as trying to press the Stoughton guards into turnovers.
Neither team was able to get much more than six point lead with Stoughton going into the
break up six. The second half was more of the same as the lead see-sawed back and forth.
Mansfield’s first attempt at the tie with under two seconds left was missed but the Hornets
scrapped for the rebound and created a turnover with 0.9 seconds left. Tom Gilson was able to
inbound the ball to Venter for his clutch hoop.
In the overtime Mansfield, already without the leadership of senior captain Matt Alksninis, lost
captain Tom Gilson to fouls which disrupted the flow of the offense and allowed Stoughton to
get out to four-to-six point lead, further forcing Mansfield to foul. Stoughton made their foul
shots and Mansfield just did not have the time to recover.
The Hornets, now 5-11 (3-11 Hock) take on the Foxboro Warriors on Tuesday, which will be
Senior night at the Albertini Gym. They then finish the Hockomock league season with a game
at Canton on Friday.
The Hornets went up against the iron of the Hockomock league and the iron hit back as the
Franklin Panthers defeated Mansfield 67 to 50 on Friday night at the Franklin Field House.
For the second game in a row, the Hornets came out a little bit flat, allowing Franklin to run out
to a twelve-point lead. This is undoubtedly due, in part, the depth perception issues of the
Field House for shooting, but also due to tenacious Franklin defense and the resulting
turnovers. Mansfield battled and got the deficit down to nine points at half-time as they
acclimated to court and, more importantly, picked up their intensity level and took better care
of the rock.
As the second half started, it was Mansfield with the high level of intensity, as they got Franklin
into very early foul trouble by taking the ball to the hole and playing their own level of
tenacious defense, forcing Franklin into uncharacteristic turnovers. But, Franklin is a very
disciplined team, especially offensively, and as they settled down they were able to make the
extra pass and find the chinks in Mansfield’s defense. And, with a good team like Franklin, any
type of comeback is difficult. Mansfield was able to get the lead down to five points on a
couple of occasions, but Franklin’s discipline and passing allowed them to inexorably extend
their lead to 20+ points and put the game away.
The Hornets, at 4-10 (2-10 Hock), have now put themselves in the unenviable position of
having to win their remaining six games in order to qualify for the MIAA tournament. This will
not be an easy task with games at Stoughton and Canton and home against Foxboro. The
tournament run starts Tuesday night at home against
The Mansfield Hornets suffered another heart-breaking, buzzer-beating basket as they lost to
undefeated Hock leader Oliver Ames on Friday at the Tiger Dome, 68-66.
In what was probably their best-played game of the year, Mansfield trailed OA at the half, but bounced
back behind some stellar defense to take a13-point lead with about 4 minutes to go. At that point, OA
took a time-out as expected to try to blunt Mansfield’s momentum. In a startling turn of events, OA also
called a technical foul on themselves for having a player with the wrong number in the scorebook. The
ensuing discussion added an additional 5-10 minutes to the OA time out and allowed the Tigers to
regroup and catch a needed break. It also thoroughly stopped Mansfield’s momentum.
Mansfield made the two free throws to take a 15 point lead, but OA came back flying hitting a two three’
s and, more importantly, forcing Mansfield into a slower half-court offense and defense, nullifying
Mansfield’s speed advantage and allowing OA to take advantage of their height. Mansfield also went
cold from the field allowing OA to get back into it and tie the game up. Clutch free throws from Matt
Alksninis, Tim Mahoney, and Matt Handley kept the game tied. With 15 seconds left, OA scored to take
a two-point lead, Mansfield got the ball into the front court where Rodney Chance was fouled, and
belying his freshman calmly sank two free throws to tie the game with 6 seconds left. Unfortunately for
Mansfield, that was six seconds too many as OA pushed the ball down court and got a shot off, with two
defenders right on him that hit the front of the rim, bounced up to the back of the rim, bounced up and
swished through the net for a back-breaking win.
Mansfield is now 2-7 in the Hock, 4-7 overall, but clearly, and unluckily, a far superior team than the
record indicates. The Hornets are off on Tuesday, but return to action on Friday, Jan 26th, to try to
avenge their loss to the North Attleboro Red Rocketeers at the Albertini Gymnasium. It promises to be a
good one.
Another Friday night, and another heart-breaking loss for the Mansfield Hornets, 68-66 in overtime, to
the North Attleboro Red Rocketeers.
For the third straight Friday night the Green Hornets lost a game in heartbreaking fashion. Taking on a
NA team that had defeated them by 30 points in their previous meeting the Hornets were inches, or
perhaps only seconds from defeating the visitors in the rematch at Albertini Gym on Friday.
Led by the inspired play of senior captain Matt Alksninis, Mansfield overcame a 30-22 halftime deficit
and a later deficit of 11 points to tie the game at 56-all with just under nine seconds to play, with the ball.
NA called a time out to set their defense, and after in-bounding the ball Mansfield called their own time-
out to respond to the NA defense. The resulting in-bounds play resulted in a last-second shot that was
blocked by NA as time expired, sending the game into overtime.
In the OT, Mansfield and North played evenly, until a late turnover led to a tie-breaking basket with four
seconds to go. Mansfield was unable to get a good shot off and NA escaped with a win.
In the second half Mansfield was led by Captain Matt Alksninis, as he constantly went into the paint
against the taller NA squad for offensive rebounds and put-backs; one hellacious block of the NA center
on break-away lay-up attempt and, of course the game tying basket on a perfectly execute backdoor cut.
Alksninis was supported by the tenacious defense of Andrew Venter and Matt Alksninis and the Jimmy
McGrath’s offense.
Mansfield continually harassed the NA guards into turnovers, making passes into the post to the big men
very difficult and swarming with double teams once the pass got into the post. Offensively, Rodney
Chance and Andrew Venter constantly attacked the big fellas down low, or kicked out to the wings for
good looks. Unfortunately, like the Patriots against the Colts, the opponent made one or two more plays
and was able to take home the W.
While it was a tremendous turn-around from the first game against North, Mansfield (4-8, 2-8 Hock)
deserved a better fate and now heads into a very difficult week with road games at Sharon and Franklin
to keep their tournament hopes alive.
Once again, it was close, but no cigar for the Mansfield Hornets as they lost 61-58 to the Sharon Eagles
last night in Sharon putting a significant damper on the Hornets hopes of making the state tournament.
The game got off to a very poor start for Mansfield as their shots weren’t dropping and Sharon got out to
12-0 lead, increasing it to 16 at point, until Mansfield, led by the inspired effort of senior captain Joe
Murphy, dialed up the intensity level to cut the deficit to eight points, 32-24 at half time.
The second found Mansfield in early and significant foul trouble as Sharon was in the double bonus six
minutes into the second half. Mansfield once again showed their resiliency overcoming the officiating
and Sharon to tie the game at 52, but they could never gain the lead falling back by five points. However,
Mansfield pressure forced a Sharon turnover, following a Jimmy McGrath 3-pointer to get them with in
one. Mansfield was forced to foul down the stretch allowing Sharon to maintain a four to five point lead.
In the end the combination of turnovers, and off-night in shooting and the foul trouble cost Mansfield the
opportunity to come back and send the game into overtime.
At 4-9 (2-9 Hock), Mansfield can only afford to lose one of their remaining seven games, and it will not
be easy starting with Friday night’s contest against the Franklin Panthers in Franklin.