Attleboro High Boys Basketball Falls to Mansfield

It was all about effort for the Mansfield High boys’ basketball team during its Hockomock League Large School Division game on Tuesday night against

The Hornets trailed the Bombardiers by 16 points in the first half before putting together an impressive 35-7 run and eventually coming away with a 56-47 victory.

The victory improved Mansfield to 8-2 overall, 6-0 in the league and 3-0 in the division. The loss by Attleboro, which dealt a heavy blow to its division title hopes, dropped the team to 7-3 overall, 3-3 in the league and 0-3 in the division.

Mansfield junior guard Brian Hershman led all scorers with 22 points, while senior forward Joe Gracia contributed 11 points. Senior captain and guard Jeff Hill scored eight points and senior captain and forward Michael Lofton had seven.

Senior captain and forward Kebba Nasso led Attleboro with 15 points, while senior captain and guard Nate Robitaille had 13. Junior guard Stephen Edmonds also scored seven points for the hosts.

A 7-0 run by the Bombardiers, which concluded with a basket by senior captain and forward Shawn Silva, gave the hosts a 33-17 lead with 3:40 remaining in the first half.

While Attleboro missed several opportunities to build on its lead, Mansfield went on an 8-1 surge to end the first half and close the gap to nine at the break, 34-25. Hershman scored five points during this run, while Hill had two and Gracia added one point.

“Any time you can weather the storm and then go on a run, you put yourself in a position to win the game,” Mansfield head coach Mike Vaughan said.

With the Bombardiers ahead 36-27 with seven minutes left in the third, the Hornets scored the next nine points to tie the game at 36-36 with 4:05 remaining. Gracia had five points during this surge with Hill and senior forward Chris Johnson each having two.

A basket by Nasso would give Attleboro its final lead of the night at 38-36 with 2:26 left in the third. Mansfield would score the final six points of the quarter to take a 42-38 lead after three. Lofton, Hershman and senior guard Dan Dion all contributed baskets as the Hornets outscored the hosts 17-4 in the quarter and ended an impressive 25-5 surge.

“In the first half, they (Attleboro) were getting to every 50-50 ball,” Vaughan said. “They wanted it more than us. In the second half even when they got the 50-50 balls we were making them work much harder."

Vaughn said Mansfield did a better job contesting their shots. 

A three-pointer by Robitaille and two free throws by junior guard Chris Walsh closed the gap to seven at 52-45 with 2:54 left. But, Mansfield scored the next four points to put the game away at 56-45 with 42.6 seconds remaining. Hill had a basket during this final run with Hershman and Lofton contributing free throws.

“Match-up wise, (Attleboro) presents a lot of problems for us,” Vaughan said. “They have a lot of great athletes on that team and our energy was lacking in the first half.”

“Things started falling apart in the second half,” Attleboro head coach Mark Houle said. “We broke down defensively and were giving them easy baskets. They are a good, quality team and once they got the momentum it was hard for us to get it back. They just kept coming at us.”

“We had good defensive purpose in the first half,” said Houle. “We made them work for every shot and had a good flow going.

Houle said he knew, however, Mansfield would come back. "They stayed aggressive, cut the lead to nine at the half and got the momentum," he said. "But when a team has to come back from a large deficit like that they usually have to use up a lot of their energy. When that happened we figured we would put a run together, but that run never came.”

Also on Tuesday night, the Mansfield girls remained undefeated and qualified for the Division 1 South Sectional Tournament with a 65-38 win over Attleboro in a Hockomock League Large School Division game at the James Albertini Memorial Gymnasium.

Senior center Colleen Copley led the Hornets with 12 points, while Bombardier forward Rachel Daley was the high scorer in the game with 15 points. Mansfield held just a seven-point advantage at the half, 26-19, but outscored Attleboro 39-19 over the final two quarters to secure both the win and a tournament berth.

The Bombardiers dropped to 1-10 overall, 1-5 in the division and 0-3 in the division.

On Friday night, the Attleboro boys will host King Philip in a Large School Division contest at 6:30 p.m., while the Bombardier girls travel to Wrentham to face King Philip in a division contest at 6:30.