By Brian Fabry
MANSFIELD – In front of a crowd that would have rivaled a Mansfield football game for head coach Mike Redding, his Hornets girls’ hoops squad took care of business and the Hockomock League title.
No. 12 Mansfield avenged an earlier season loss to No. 4 Attleboro (19-2) and pulled away in the end with a 56-43 victory to capture the school’s second Hockomock League title with the only other championship coming in 2011.
The Hornets (18-2) closed out the game on a 10-0 run hitting their free throws down the stretch but it was Meg Hill who scored all 11 of her points in the decisive third quarter that proved to be the difference. The Mansfield defense did the rest limiting the Bombardiers to 16 second-half points overall.
“In the first half anytime we got it to (Hill), she brought it down too low and we just had to get it to her as she is our bread and butter inside,” said Redding. “We did a good job getting it to her and she did a good job keeping it high and getting some offensive rebounds and second chance points.”
Hill was held scoreless in the first half but Coach Redding took advantage of Attleboro’s Sarah Deyo’s foul trouble and pounded the ball inside in the third quarter. Deyo, who still had a team-high 15 points, was in foul trouble for Attleboro most of the game and had to be move passive on defense in the paint. Hill’s fourth consecutive field goal in the paint put Mansfield up for good with 3:06 left in the third, 35-32.
Another player that struggled sporadically for Coach Redding was Jen Peel, who was scoreless in the first eight minutes of play but rallied to score a game-high 18 points to lead Mansfield down the stretch. Peel didn’t score her first point until 3:18 of the second quarter and had a pivotal three-point play the hard way only minutes after returning to the floor in the final minutes after being pulled by Redding for sloppy backcourt play.
“(Peel) drives me crazy. We kid around that we can’t live with her but we can’t live without her,” Redding added. “She might make a mistake here or there but it’s trying to make something happen, trying to be aggressive. The great things she does far outweighs some of the other things and we are more than glad to live with it.”
Attleboro froze offensively in the second half after trading baskets with the Hornets for the first 12 minutes of the game. Emily Houle, who was four points short of the 1000-point club, was held to only two free throws on the night and the big credit goes to Jaclyn Carchedi (nine points) who played Houle man-to-man for the final eight minutes after Mansfield played a match-up zone most of the way.
“Our big concentration was to take away Meg Hill but they were making some good passes and we didn’t have enough ball pressure on the outside,” said Attleboro head coach, Rick Patch. “We got stagnant on the offensive end, couldn’t get the ball moving, and really couldn’t get anything moving. With all of our adversity, there was no team that deserved (the league title) more but Mansfield earned it more.”
The foul trouble extended throughout the team for the Bombardiers as they fell into the bonus with over six minutes to play in the fourth and trailing by five, 41-36. This put the game away for Mansfield as the Hornets hit 9-of 14 free throws to extend their lead and the frustration for Attleboro, who fell apart in the final minutes of play.
“This is huge to win it at home after losing (at Attleboro), it’s a great senior class, and this is just great momentum going into the tournament,” said Redding. “Just a great battle with two great teams and we’ll probably see other again in a couple of weeks in the tournament so be ready for the rubber match.”
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