Mansfield Sweeps King Philip Boys and Girls Basketball

Mansfield girls basketball beat King Philip, 39-27, on Friday in a game decided entirely by the second half.

“I think [Mansfield] did some nice adjustments defensively,” KP head coach Sean McInnis said. “Our defense leads to our offense, and I thought they did a nice job rotating against our press, but we really struggled getting some steals and some open shots.”

The first quarter only saw a total of 12 points from both teams, with the Warriors in the lead 7-5.

“They were getting a lot of second chances underneath the net going to the boards very hard,” Mansfield head coach Mike Redding said. “That’s how [King Philip] got a lot of their points in the first half.”

Mansfield came back fighting in the second quarter to trail by two at 19-17, but they came together in the second half with a vengeance.

“It took us a half to catch up to their defense’s speed. They’re very physical and aggressive. They put us on the line but still they just don’t give you anything easy, they just play hard.”

Mansfield’s Emily Glavin, who had no points in the first half, lit up the scoreboard with 16 points over the course of the second half.

“That’s the difference this year,” Redding said. “Last year, she might have come out and not shot in the second half, and this year she knows she’s a captain, she’s a good shooter, she’s got more confidence. When you make your first one it gives you that boost and you get on a role.”

“We answered at the beginning of the fourth to answer,” Redding said. 

King Philip tried to keep up, but their shooting could not match Mansfield’s defense, scoring only four points during the quarter completely on foul shots. The quarter ended 27-23 Mansfield leading.

The Hornets continued their upward momentum and scored another 12 points to bring the game to its conclusion at 39-27.

McInnis said that his strategy for this game was to keep the defense ahead of the opposing offense to keep the score low. For the first half, KP definitely succeeded.

“We knew coming in to this year that we had to keep teams under forty to be competitively in the game,” he said. “We struggle sometimes offensively, but we think that our defense will lead to our success offensively.”

For Mansfield, Erin Glavin led the pack with 16 points, followed by Gina Stoyle with eight points. Janet Maher, Alyssa Kelley and Jessica Stoyle each had three points and Caroline Maher, Lauren Beecher and Kimberly Foley each had two and Julia DiMascio had one point.

“We had some good balance, “ Redding said. “We had some kids off the bench doing a good job, we just needed to break the ice.”

King Philip’s Emily Sullivan had seven points, Grace Davis had six points, Mary Allen, Rylianne Dalzell and Brianna Miccile had four points, McKenzie Richardson had three points, and Alicia Cuoco  had two points.

KP Boys Outpowered by Mansfield

Despite keeping it close early in the first quarter, the Mansfield Hornets turned out to be too fast and too strong for the King Philip Warriors who lost to the Hornets, 69-45.

Up 8-4 with three minutes to play in the first, a pair of free throws from Kyle Wisnieski and a basket from Brendan Hill helped get the Hornets up 15-7 after the first quarter.

A basket by Michael Pergola and another KP basket cut the deficit to seven early in the second but that is as close at the Warriors would get for the rest of the evening. Finishing the half on an 18-7 run, eight points from Michael Boen helped the Hornets get to the half up 37-17.

Unable to stop the Hornets from driving to the basket or their fast paced offense, the Hornets put the game away in the third quarter behind five points from Gregory Romanko and four more from Hill.

Sam McDonald led the way for the Warriors with nine points and four rebounds, Erich Ryan had seven points and seven rebonds. Both Jimmy Layman and Jared O’Connor had five points.

Ryan Boulter led the game with 13 points for the Hornets. Ryan DeAndrade had 11 points. Hill had nine points.

The Warriors will now enjoy their holiday break with no game scheduled until Jan. 4 when they travel to Milford. The Hornets will play BC High on Dec. 23. 

Text for girls team here