MANSFIELD, Mass. – The beat goes on for the well-oiled machine that is the Mansfield boys basketball team.
Despite being down two starters, the second-seeded Hornets dominated from start to finish in a 77-50 win over #10 Marblehead in a Division 2 Elite 8 contest.
In front of a jam-packed rambunctious crowd inside Albertini Gymnasium, the Hornets exploded out of the gate with 24 points in the first quarter and defensively, they never let the visiting Magicians get their act in order.
With the win, Mansfield advances to the Division 2 Final Four.
With junior point guard Davon Sanders (9.1 points per game) and junior defensive standout Trevor Foley (11.6 ppg) sidelined with injuries, the shorthanded Hornets didn’t miss a beat.
“I think it’s the personality of the guys on the team,” said Mansfield head coach Mike Vaughan. “They understand that the style is more important than the individual pieces. When guys buy into that, that we are the sum of the team as opposed to individuals, it’s about the sum of all of us.”
Sophomore Nate Creedon started in just his second career game at point guard while sophomore Riley Sigman entered the rotation. Both players saw limited minutes during the regular season but made an immediate impact in this one with Creedon (five points, seven assists) dishing out three assists in the opening quarter and Sigman adding a field goal in the Hornets’ big first quarter.
“We’re throwing a back cut to Riley [Sigman] in a playoff game, he was a JV player two weeks ago, a practice player for us,” Vaughan said, “That’s how much they trust the system and one another and what they are capable of. Talk about the play of Nate and Riley…if they got off the bench two weeks ago it was in a 30-point game and now they’re playing meaningful minutes in the rotation and making meaningful plays. And it’s not all stuff you see in the stat book, they both played steady and weren’t afraid of the moment.”
Junior Eddie McCoy, fresh off a career-high 31-point performance in Mansfield’s win over Salem in the previous round, set the tone early offensively as he dropped 11 of his game-high 22 points in the first quarter. It started back and forth, but Mansfield closed on a 12-2 run to create separation that the Magicians couldn’t make disappear.
McCoy had the first four points – a pair of free throws and then a strong baseline take off a feed from Creedon. Sigman converted a backdoor cut, junior Brandon Jackman came off the bench to convert in close, senior JT Veiking (21 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three blocks) scored off a feed from Creedon, and then Jackman linked up with Veiking for two more and Mansfield had an early 24-9 lead.
Mansfield quickly pushed the lead to 20 points less than two minutes into the quarter off a putback from Veiking and a three-pointer from McCoy. The final six minutes played out a bit more even as the Hornets went a little cold from distance but senior Chris Hill (eight points, 13 rebounds, five assists, two steals) found classmate Caden Colby (10 points, four assists) in the corner for a triple and a 39-20 lead at the half.
“JT played a little different in more of what we needed him to do, Caden stepped up and took on a top-level scorer and was able to keep him in check, really helped us and made them work for everything they got,” Vaughan said. “Guys that were playing 20 minutes before, they were playing 26, 27 minutes tonight and in this environment, physically and mentally, is draining. I thought everything from the environment, the community showing out, the pregame, everything was just first class. We were locked in from the start. We’ve been here before and the kids proved we belong here, and I was really proud of that.”
Mansfield’s offense picked back up in the third, outsourcing the visitors by double digits, 22-12. Creedon sandwiched a three and a field goal around a triple from McCoy, Veiking added a triple of his own, and a minute later, McCoy had another triple as the Hornets’ lead grew to 55-26 just three minutes into the third.
“It was a clinic,” Vaughan said. “I thought we were locked in yesterday [at practice]. You never know how young men will respond to a situation. We didn’t have a week to prepare for [Foley’s injury], we had one practice. The kids showed up today, they were locked in on offense, they were locked in on defense, and they really put on a clinic.”
A traditional three-point play from Colby started the fourth quarter and Mansfield’s lead — in an Elite 8 game in the state tournament – hit 30 points. The Hornets held the Magicians to 12 or fewer points in the first three quarters while Colby helped keep crafty Marblehead guard Tyrone Countrymon to 15 points (nine through three quarters).
“I think we were overwhelming on both ends of the floor for them tonight,” Vaughan said. “The defensive end, I think you can watch us on film and if you don’t get to play us, you don’t know how good we are defensively. The players are prepared to really navigate the game, and they can force guys into shots and into things out of character. We’re not trying to pitch a shutout, we just try to minimize opportunities. We can’t get away with some things in our league but out of the league, we can make it difficult for teams to score.”
Sophomore Sean McCoy dished out a pair of assists in the fourth quarter, senior Michael Creedon added to the scoring column with a strong take, and freshman Gabe McIntyre drained a three to get the Hornets to their final score.
Mansfield boys basketball (24-2) will take on Nashoba in the Final Four with a spot in the state championship on the line. The date, time, and location for the game is still to be announced.