Mansfield High Boys' Basketball Wins Division 1 South Crown

When you are an outstanding defensive team, you are never out of a game.

Even when you’re struggling on the offensive end of the floor, your defense is able to hold the opposition down until you can make that one big run to win the game.

That’s the situation the Mansfield High boys’ basketball team found itself in against Newton North during the finals of the MIAA Division 1 South Sectional Tournament on Friday night at the TD Garden.

Facing an eight-point deficit and the end to their season, the Hornets outscored the Tigers 14-4 over the last three and a half minutes to come away with an exciting 48-46 victory.

“We play such good defense that we can always bail ourselves out when we are having a tough night offensively,” said Mansfield head coach Mike Vaughan. “We are such a good defensive team that when we are not playing well offensively, we still have a chance to win. The big thing in this game is that the kids did not give up. We felt if we kept going and kept plugging away, things would fall our way and they did.”

The victory improved top-seeded Mansfield to 24-2 and sends the Hornets to the Division 1 state semifinals, where they will face the top team in the state in St. John’s Prep. The Eagles, the top-seed in the North sectional, improved to 23-1 with an 87-73 victory over 15th-seeded Lawrence (16-9) in the Division 1 North Sectional Finals on Friday night.

Newton North, the seventh seed, finished the season with a 19-7 record.

“We said to each other that were not leaving here without a victory this year,” said Vaughan, whose team dropped a 72-60 decision to Madison Park in the Division 1 South Sectional finals a year ago at the TD Garden.

Senior captain Mike Lofton led Mansfield with 16 points, including 10 in the second half. Senior forward Chris Johnson scored 10 points, while senior captain and forward Jeff Hill had nine. Junior forward Terry O’Mara also contributed four points. Senior guard Dan Dion, junior guard Brian Hershman and senior forward Joe Gracia all had three.

Senior forward Tevin Falzon led Newton North with 14 points and 17 rebounds, while junior guard Mike Thorpe had 11 points. Junior guard Luke Westman also scored eight points and junior forward Barry Santana had six.

Mansfield looked to be in some trouble, trailing by eight points at 42-34 following a pair of free throws by Falzone with 4:32 left in the game.

But the Hornets began their comeback when Dion was fouled on a three-point attempt. He hit one of his three free throws, cutting the lead to 42-35 with 3:20 remaining.

Another basket by Dion closed Mansfield to within five at 42-37 at the 2:58 mark. A rebound and put back by Hill made it 42-39 with 2:30 left. Hershman then grabbed a steal and was fouled, hitting one of two from the line to pull Mansfield to within two at 42-40.

Hill completed an 8-0 run with a basket with 1:48 remaining, tying the game at 42-42. The Tigers retook the lead at 44-42 on a nice driving lay-up down the baseline by Westman at 1:28. But Lofton converted a put back of a rebound with 53 seconds left to tie the game again at 44-44. Moments later, the Hornet senior captain brought the Mansfield crowd to its feet, grabbing a steal and throwing down a dunk to give the Hornets a 46-44 advantage with 38 seconds remaining.

Falzon pulled his team into a 46-46 deadlock with a pair of clutch free throws with 17.3 seconds left. After a Hornet timeout with 13.6 seconds left, Lofton hit Johnson with a nice pass and Johnson converted it into a lay-up and a 48-46 Mansfield lead with four seconds remaining. On the Newton North inbounds pass, Johnson tipped the ball and Dion grabbing the loose ball as time expired.

“The last four or five minutes, we controlled the tempo,” said Vaughan. “We controlled the boards, were able to neutralize their offense and make some hoops. We have enough offensive firepower that at some point we felt we would put together a run.”