Mansfield Defeats Attleboro on the Court 79-49

Mansfield beat Attleboro  79 to 49 on Tuesday at the MHS gym. The Hornets managed to outplay the Bombadiers by taking  their defense close and getting turnovers and rebounds in numbers far exceeding Attleboro.

“I thought coming into the game, we’d have a tough time matching up with them,” said Mansfield head coach Michael Vaughan. “We kind of jumped down on them  and took the driver’s seat early on.”

The game didn’t start out so lopsided, as Attleboro had the lead for the first four minutes of the game. The first period was a rally of fast back and forth in terms of scoring between both teams,  but with 2:40 left in the period, Mansfield began a streak that would continue the rest of the game. Mansfield ended the first 21-15, in a  less than comfortable lead.

“We weren’t able to match them with points,” said Attleboro head coach Mark Houle. “They did a nice job to limiting us to one shot on the rebounds.”

Attleboro could not keep any momentum in the second period. For the first half of the second, they only scored six points, while Mansfield scored 16. The half ended with Mansfield leading 47 to 28.

“We turned them over a lot,” Vaughan said. “We probably had the most steals and deflections we’ve had all season.”

Attleboro went on to score 21 more points in the next half, but Mansfield scored 32 to end the game at 79-49.

“There’s a lot of things we need to work on, but the most important thing is the fundamentals,” Houle said. “Defense is where it’s at for us. If you can be a defensive team, then you can play with a lot of teams. We didn’t play well defensively tonight.”

Mansfield’s Vincent Pignone lead the swarm with 18 points, followed by Ryan DeAndrade with 13 points. Freshman Brendan Hill and sophomore Michael Hershman each scored 12 points, followed by senior Brian Hershman with 7 points. Cole Cummings hit for five points while Andrew Sullivan, Terrence O’Mara and Sean Higgins hit a basket each.

For Attleboro, J.j.  Jolaoso and Chris Walsh each scored 10 points, followed by Anthany Soto with eight. Matt Borgellas and Raymond Ivey scored five a piece, and Tim Walsh scored three points. E.J. Santarpio, Zach Morrison, Shawn Reardon and Thomas Burns each hit a basket.

Mansfield is now 8-3 overall and will play in Franklin on Friday. Attleboro is now 6-5 overall and will play King Philip on Friday.