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Mansfield Boys Basketball To Be Tested This Week

Three difficult opponents to make for challenging stretch for Hornets.

The inclement weather and subsequent postponements will certainly make this a challenging week for the

The Hornets were scheduled to play New Bedford on Monday night in the opening round of the Super Stop and Shop Holiday Classic, which is being  and held at Chelsea High School.

But the snowstorm forced that game to be postponed to today at 6 p.m.

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What that means is that Mansfield will have to face three difficult opponents in as many days this week.

After playing the Whalers on Tuesday night, the Hornets will face either St. John's Prep or New Mission in the next round on Wednesday, Dc. 29 in the afternoon.

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If that wasn't enough to keep the team busy--when Mansfield returns home it will be hosting another tough squad, facing Cardinal Spellman during a non-league game at the James Albertini Memorial Gymnasium on Thursday, Dec. 30 at 6:30 p.m.

The 12-team Holiday Classic, hosted by the Boston Amateur Basketball Club, is loaded with talented and successful programs and is split into three pools of four teams each. Mansfield is in the Class A Division along with New Bedford, St. John's Prep and New Mission.

Mansfield will enter the tournament with a 2-0 record as the Hornets began the season with a pair of victories in the Hockomock League's Large School Division.

Tonight, the Hornets will face a Whaler team that is 3-0 and was ranked seventh in the Boston Herald's Division I Eastern Massachusetts Boys Hoop Poll.

New Mission moved up to Division 2 this year after winning the Division 4 state crown a year ago. And the team was ranked first in Division 2 in the Boston Herald's Eastern Massachusetts preseason poll. St. John's Prep reached the finals of the Division 1 North Sectional last winter, losing to eventual Division 1 state champion Central Catholic. That team began the season ranked third in the Herald's Eastern Massachusetts Division 1 preseason poll.

After New Bedford and Mansfield battle at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 28, St. John's Prep and New Mission will play at 7:15 p.m. The losing teams from those two games will play in Chelsea on Wednesday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. with the two winning teams facing each other on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

There are eight additional teams involved in the Holiday Classic this week in Chelsea.

Windsor, Connecticut is in the New England Division, along with Bishop Guertin of Nashua, N.H, Boston College High and Mount Si, which made the trip from Seattle, Washington. Everett, Haverhill, Cambridge Ridge and Latin and Putnam (Conn.) Vocational will play in invitational games on Tuesday.

Windsor will play Bishop Guertin at 1 p.m. on Dec. 28, with BC facing Mount Si at 2:15 p.m. Everett will battle Haverhill at 3:30 p.m. with Cambridge Ridge and Latin playing Putnam Vocational at 4:45 p.m. The four teams in the A Division will then round out the day's action at 6 and 7:15 p.m.

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