Mansfield Boys Basketball Defeats Canton, 71-58

The Mansfield boys basketball team beat Canton on Friday,  71-58. During the first half, the game seemed pretty much in the pocket for the Hornets.

Canton started off leading the game 7-2 after two minutes of play, but Mansfield started climbing and gained momentum. Ryan DeAndrade scored a basket to tie it at seven, and then followed it up after a successful rebound with a three pointer to gain the lead Mansfield would keep for the rest of the game.

“He played great, he’s playing very consistently,” Vaughan said of DeAndrade.

The second half saw a completely different game from Canton. They started playing more aggressively and hit more shots and rebounds than in the first half. They climbed up with 23 points to Mansfield’s 13 in the third period alone.  The period ended 50-43 with Mansfield hanging on to the lead.

“They picked up their defensive intensity and I think they forced us to play on our heels,” Vaughan said. “That’s a big thing this team needs to develop is the ability to fight back. We did it in the first half, I thought we had our normal Mansfield team, but Canton did a nice of job in the second half of neutralizing that.

Canton continued to threaten in the fourth period, but could not build enough momentum to stop Mansfield.

Mansfield outscored Canton in the end, shooting 21 points to Canton’s 13 for the final margin.

DeAndrade led the Hornets in scoring with 17 points, followed by Brian Hershman with 15 points (mostly threes) and Kevin Connor with 12 points inside the key.  Michael Hershman, Gregory Romanko and Terence O’Mara each scored four points.

Mansfield is now 12-7 overall, and will play Dighton-Rehoboth Tuesday at 7 p.m..