Attleboro Boys' Basketball Team Edged by Mansfield

The Attleboro High boys' basketball team made a late charge in an attempt to pull off a huge upset led by senior JJ Jolaoso, who had 11 of his game-high 26 points in the final quarter, but the Mansfield Hornets had too much and clinched a playoff berth with a 62-54 win.

The Bombardiers competed well all game long and did not allow the Hornets to pull away as they had in the first meeting between the teams. Still, Mansfield extended the lead to as high as 14 then Joalaso got going.

The Bombardiers' leading scorer buried a three, then finished an old-fashioned three-point play with a hard drive to the baseline. He then picked out Tim Walsh, who finished with 14 points, for a three to cut the lead to 55-50. The teams traded buckets before Jolaoso hit again on a runner to bring the Bombardiers within three.

Unfortunately, that was as close as Attleboro would get as they turned the ball over on their last few possessions and the Hornets made their free throws to pull away for the win.

"It was the work ethic there at the end that brought us back," said Attleboro coach Mark Houle. "Unfortunately in a couple situations where we needed a basket, we turned it over. It came down to execution and they had guys that made some good defensive plays at the end."

Mansfield coach Mike Vaughan knew coming in that there is no easy game in the league and he had preached to his team not to overlook the Bombardiers.

"They played hard and their back was against the wall tonight," he said. "We came off of two losses and I've been preaching for two weeks not to look past anybody."

Attleboro made the decision to go small and prevent the dribble penetration, but it left a lot of openings at the three-point line. Mansfield took advantage with 11 three's as a team, including five from leading scorer Greg Romanko, who had 19 points. Terence O'Mara added three from the outside and finished with 11 points, all in the first half.

"One of the things, we didn't want to do was make it a lay-up game," said Houle. "They killed us last time with the back cut all night long. I thought our defense played better tonight. They (Mansfield) shot very well."

The Hornets were helped out by an unlikely source in the fourth quarter as sophomore guard Ryan DeAndrade came off the bench and scored nine points, seven in the fourth. Despite being only 5'7" tall he also nabbed three huge rebounds, a category that Mansfield dominated in the game (34-23).

Still, at the end of the game, Houle was proud of his team's effort in giving themselves a shot at the upset. "As part of our effort we didn't give up many easy shots," he said. "Give credits to the guys they really worked hard tonight."

Vaughan praised his team for building the initial lead. "We just built too big of a cushion for them to come back. Still, one shot, one ball falls the other way and it's a different ballgame."

Mansfield, having clinched their spot in the postseason, will now look to win the league title when they play host to the Franklin Panthers on Tuesday night. The winner gets the opportunity to play the Davenport champions, Stoughton, on Friday in the Crossover Game, which will be hosted by the Kelly-Rex team this season. 

The Bombardiers are still mathematically alive for the playoffs but they will now have to win each of their final four games to qualify. They will have a difficult task to get things started when they play host to King Philip and their star Jake Layman Tuesday night.