Attleboro Fends Off Mansfield For Win In Home Opener

 
 
 ATTLEBORO, Mass. — Mansfield erased an early deficit and kept clawing back throughout the fourth quarter, but the Attleboro girls basketball team refused to lose in the first varsity basketball game played at their brand new high school.

Each time the Hornets made a move to get within one possession, the Bombardiers had an answer. Attleboro got contributions from up and down its roster and some clutch fourth quarter plays to secure a 63-53 win over the visiting Hornets.

“Coming off the loss at Framingham, I was a little nervous about their confidence but they came out strong and that was a huge confidence builder for us,” said Attleboro head coach Bri Bracken. “We talked about it being the first game here, being the first varsity basketball team to play here so it was great to get the win.”

Click here for a photo gallery from this game.

Junior Kayla Goldrick scored 10 of her 17 points in the final frame, cashing in on a clutch steal and a clutch offensive rebound to keep the hosts in front against Mansfield’s comeback bid. Seconds after Mansfield junior Abby Wager drained a three-pointer to cut the deficit to two, Attleboro junior Merry Bosh sank a three from the corner with two minutes to play to dash the Hornets’ hopes of a comeback.

“We switched up our defense a little bit and I think that helped, and when they weren’t hitting from the outside we had to rebound,” Bracken said. “Kayla came up huge in that stretch, just the heart and the hustle there and that’s why she’s one of our captains. Mary Bosh hitting that three late in the game was huge too.”

The Bombardiers got off to a great start as senior Lily Routhier connected on a pair of early three-pointers and Attleboro established a double-digit lead in the first quarter. Wager, Kara Santos (11 points, 11 rebounds), and Olivia Salisbury (18 points, four rebounds) rallied Mansfield back into the contest during the second quarter and a bucket from Ella Palanza handed the Hornets their first lead with under a minute to go in the first half.

Goldrick hit a three with under 10 seconds to play in the second quarter and Attleboro jumped back ahead, 31-29, at halftime.

“I think they had a lot of different players come in and make an impact,” said Mansfield head coach Heather McPherson. “We came in preparing for Ellis and Goldrick, then Routhier hit the threes. And then Bosh had that big three. We’d make these runs and then we’d have a mental mistake. They had a game Friday and got all of those jitters out, I feel like we had all of those jitters from a lot of people.

“I thought we made some good adjustments to get back into but we had some preseason injuries, and even though everyone is back now, but it’s getting into that game shape. We’d have a good run then have to shuffle someone else in. And just too many costly mistakes.”

Sophomore Vanessa Ellis carried Attleboro to a successful third quarter as she scored seven of her 15 points in the frame and had five of her 16 rebounds. Ellis finished off a traditional three-point play with three minutes to go, converted a putback with 1:30 to play in the frame, and sank a pair of free throws with under a minute to go to hand Attleboro a 45-40 advantage going into the fourth.

Santos used a nice move in the paint to get the Hornets on the board and a steal from Bridget Hanley (eight assists, seven rebounds) set up Wager for a layup that cut the deficit to one, 45-44. Routhier and Santos traded baskets as Mansfield trailed by just one before Goldrick drove for two points. Attleboro had another missed but Goldrick crashed the class and put it right back up to make it 51-46.

Santos found Wager for two and the Hornets got a stop on an offensive to try and take the lead but instead it was Goldrick, sitting atop in the Bombardiers’ 2-3 zone, that deflected a pass for the steal and went coast-to-coast for a tough layup to restore the hosts’ two-possession lead

Click here for a photo gallery from this game.

The ball found Mansfield on the ensuing play but the comeback bid was ended when Bosh took a pass from Avery James and hit a three of her own with two minutes to go.

“It was a good team win,” Bracken said. “We were in a lot of foul trouble, I had Avery James on the bench, and Vanessa had four fouls. I threw a couple of freshmen in there and we just needed everyone to step up and they did, they did their job as Bill Belichick says.”

Attleboro girls basketball (1-0 Hockomock, 1-1 overall) hits the road to visit Milford on Friday at a 6:00 tipoff. Mansfield (0-1, 0-1) will have its home opener against rival Foxboro on Friday at 6:30.