Late Second Half Run Sparks OA Girls' Basketball Past Mansfield

For over 20 minutes, the Oliver Ames girls’ basketball team looked like they would be in for a grind against Mansfield Friday night at the Nixon Gymnasium. The two teams traded buckets throughout that span where the lead changed hands nine times.

Towards the end of the third quarter, however, the Lady Tigers took the lead for good during a 20-3 second half run and came away with a 54-40 victory over the Hornets.

With the game tied at 37, guards Kate Holleran and Asia Mitchell put OA ahead for good with two clutch three pointer’s at the end of the third quarter.

“That run really got the energy going and got us moving in the right direction,” said OA coach Elaine Clement Holbrook, whose team is now 7-1. “Those three’s at the end of the third quarter really got us going.”

“The back to back three’s were a dagger,” Mansfield coach Mike Redding said after seeing his team drop to 5-4. “We were playing them even the whole game and all of the sudden it goes from a tie game to a six-point lead going into the fourth. That put us in a hole against a team of this caliber.”

Ultimately, some second half adjustments also paved the way for OA.

With OA using a zone defense for most of the first half, Mansfield shot 6-of-13 from beyond the arc and created some matchup problems. During the second half, however, the Lady Tigers went man-to-man and forced the Hornets into difficult shooting situations.

Offensively, Caitlyn Abela had a strong night as the game’s leading scorer with 20 points (14 in the first half). But, Clement-Holbrook also knew that she had to get others involved during the second half when Mansfield used a box and one defense used to stop Abela.

“We went out of our zone and into man-to-man because that’s what we thought that would stop the wave of three-point shots,” Clement-Holbrook said.

“They were shooting about 50 percent from three-point land and they also went to a box and one on Caitlyn, so we had to make an adjustment. And I think the thing that was good about it was the other kids stepped up off the bench like Allie Brennan, Kristin Ellis and Kate Holleran. They all did very well for us off the bench.”

Although Mansfield hit some three’s early in the third quarter, the adjustments were too much to overcome.

“We shot great from three’s,” Redding said. “Then all of the sudden they went man-to-man and unfortunately, we aren’t very big where we can pound the ball inside. We tried to drive and cut, but they were very physical, particularly in the fourth quarter and we just couldn’t get too many good shots.”

In its first loss of the season Tuesday night against Franklin, OA committed 27 turnovers and lost by one.

Friday night was a different story as the Lady Tigers only turned the ball over 12 times.

“We talked about the fact that we had to limit our turnovers to under 15 and create some chances,” Clement-Holbrook said. “After losing by one and having 27 turnovers last game [against Franklin] was just way too much. So from that perspective I thought we did a better job taking care of the basketball tonight, so that was good.”

Mansfield senior tri-captain Michaela Dawes lead her team with 14 points in the losing effort, while OA co-captain Candace Steadman was the only other score in double figures with 11 points.

OA (at Canton) and Mansfield (at Attleboro) hit the road for divisional matchups Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m.