Young Hornets Gain Experience in Loss to Feehan

MANSFIELD, Mass. – Coming into the season, Mansfield coach Mike Redding knew that he had a talented roster, but also a young one that would need to be tested against top competition to be ready for a tournament run at the end of February.

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On Thursday night, the Hornets hosted defending Div. 1 state champion Bishop Feehan in a rematch of last season’s South semifinal. It was an exclusion game, so it would not count against Mansfield’s end of season record, but would provide a test against a team that will most likely stand in the way of the Hornets bringing home silverware this season.

Mansfield showed both how talented it is and how much further it has to grow this year, as Feehan broke open a six-point halftime lead and pulled away for a comfortable 63-49 victory at the James Albertini Gym led by seniors Katie Nelson and Emily Miccile, who both scored 18 for the Shamrocks.

“They’re still the team to beat,” said Redding, “but for a half we were able to play with them toe-to-toe, you’ve just got to do it for 32 minutes. You’ve got to put the ball in the basket pretty consistently to have a chance to win.”

Early in the game, Mansfield was able to score consistently and hung with the Shamrocks. Miccile scored eight in the opening quarter but was mostly matched by Hornets junior center Meg Hill, who had six points and was able to get space in the paint against a smaller Feehan lineup. Maggie Danehy (seven rebounds) popped out on one play to run a high-low game with Hill and tossed a perfect pass for a layup.

Nelson and Miccile closed the first with back-to-back threes to regain the lead at 15-11. The pattern continued in the second with the teams combining for 36 in the quarter. Nelson caught fire for the visitors, scoring 10 points, including an acrobatic scooped layup plus the foul to make it 34-24.

Hill remained a force in the second with six more points, including a short jumper in the lane off one of Jen Peel’s five assists. Mady Bendanillo closed out the half with a transition layup to close the gap back to six and give the hosts momentum going into halftime.

In the opening game of the season, Mansfield limited Foxboro to only 25 points and shut down Warriors star Ashley Sampson, but on Thursday, Feehan had too many weapons to stop, despite Mansfield switching between several different defensive looks.

“We tried some different stuff (box-and-one, 3-2, 2-3) you can only cover so many things and they make you pay for every little mistake you make,” said Redding.

In the second half, it was Feehan that made a defensive change that proved to be decisive. Miccile was guarding Peel throughout but in the third quarter started to get closer and deny her the ball. Peel had five in the third, including a step-back jumper over Miccile, but that ended a 12-2 Feehan run that had extended the lead to as many as 14.

“It goes up and down and all of a sudden they’re pulling away,” Redding explained. “We had some decent looks and we’re not making them and they’re making almost everything we left open and then they have kids off the bench making shots.”

The more aggressive defensive look from the Shamrocks also made it more difficult to get Hill involved. She would only have four points after the break, finishing with 16 and five rebounds.

Redding said, “They made things very difficult. Miccile on Jen, she’s just big and long. Jen’s the best person getting it to Meg, but we had a hard time getting it to Jen so she could get it in there.”

While Nelson is the 1,000-point scorer and the headliner, Miccile made several big plays down the stretch to seal the win. After Peel (13 points) drilled a three that cut the lead to 11, Mansfield came through with a defensive stand but Miccile picked off a pass and took it in for an uncontested layup.

“The turnovers we made tonight, we didn’t make many but when we did it led to fast breaks like Miccile gets three fast break layups that were just back-breakers,” Redding remarked.

Peel and Hill combined for 29 of Mansfield’s 49 points and junior Ann Maherchipped in with five points. Kara Bendanillo and Stephanie Kemp added two apiece. Redding knows that there is still a long way to go to challenge the Shamrocks in the tournament, but that his team will benefit from this early season challenge.

He said, “For us, this is a dress rehearsal for March. I think we learned some things we can do and what we can’t afford to do.”

Redding continued, “I think we grew up tonight, found out some of the weaknesses we have to address, but I think we’ll be a better team going forward.”

Mansfield (3-1, 3-0) will play in the Duxbury Holiday Tournament next week with a first round game against Marshfield on Tuesday.

Click here for a photo gallery from this game.