Sports

Mansfield Boys' Basketball Team Too Much for Lawrence

Senior Michael Lofton scored 25 points to led the Hornets to a win in the first round of the Mansfield Roundball Tournament.

For the Lawrence High boys’ basketball team, the fourth quarter meant way too much Michael Lofton.

The senior scored 10 of his 25 points as Mansfield posted a 76-60 win over Lawrence in the first round of the Mansfield Roundball Tournament, sponsored by North Easton Savings Bank at Mansfield High. The Hornets will now move on to play Belmont, who defeated Dighton-Rehoboth, 59-58, in the other boys’ game., at 7 p..m

Lawrence will play Dighton-Rehoboth in the 3 p.m. game.

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After Jaylen Alicea scored on a drive to the hoop, Lawrence was within seven at 57-50 at the start of the fourth quarter.

First, Loften scored on a rebound and was fouled. After he made the free throw, the Hornets were up, 60-50. Lofton then scored a thundering dunk to the hoop. After freshman Kevin Connor connected on a pair of throws to make it, 64-52. Lofton upped the lead to 14 points, taking a pass from Jeff Hill and slamming the ball home.

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“He is so tough to stop,” said Mansfield head coach Mike Vaughan. "He causes match-up problems."

If you put a smaller player on Lofton, he just muscles by them. Then again, if you decided to go with a bigger guy, the senior forward is just too fast for them. 

Sometimes, the only person who can stop the senior is Lofton He has a tendency to want to spread the ball around to get his teammates involved more. His coach wants him to take over the game more and be more selfish.

That’s exactly what he did in the fourth quarter.

“We just had to play our game,” said Lofton. “Defensively, we had to play more aggressively.”

Before Lofton took over the game, the Hornets relied on the outside shooting of junior guard Brian Hershman, who had 19 points, including three 3-pointers in the first quarter.

The Hornets can beat with the talented inside players, they can beat you on defense and they can beat you with their shooting.

“We can play several different ways,” said Vaughan.

The Mansfield coach knew all about Lawrence after he scouted them in a recent game. He saw a team, who could shoot the three, play strong defense and were disciplined offensively.

“I was worried after I saw them play,” said Vaughan.

The two teams were tied at 34 at the half after Jesse Hiraldo made two free throws.

Senior Yadoris Arias was also in double figures with 17 points for Lawrence.

 


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