Haymakers: Mansfield Senior outlasts Clear Fork behind hot first half

BELLVILLE — Mansfield Senior coach JeVar Hudgens sat his team down on the bench between the third and fourth quarters and started fixing them up like an old fashion boxing trainer.

He handed his players water, bandaged up their cuts and sent them back out to finish a heavyweight fight against the Clear Fork Colts. The Tygers came away with a 50-43 victory, but it wasn't without taking some haymakers themselves.

The Tygers nearly landed the knockout punch in the first half as they raced out to a 34-14 halftime lead behind some hot shooting. They drilled seven first-half 3-pointers including five in the first quarter and four on their first four possessions. Kiyah Wentz and Monetta Hilory knocked down two apiece and Dazey Manns had one in the first quarter as the Tygers built a comfortable 22-9 lead.

Hilory, who finished with a team-high 17 points, drained two more threes in the second quarter and finished 4-for-4 from long distance for the game.

"It was crazy," Hilory said. "We were feeling hot and whoever had the hot hand had the green light to shoot it. It gave us the momentum and the confidence that if we see a shot go in, we feel like the next one will, too."

The Tygers were playing with a ton of confidence in the first half and led the Colts by 20 at the intermission.

"They shot really well because they have really good players," Clear Fork coach Scott Sellers said. "They have not shot it this well the last couple of games and tonight, it just came together for them. You have to give all the credit to them. They had open shots, they took them and they made them. Giving up 34 points in a half was probably the most we have given up in the last two years and that is not who we are. We were trying to do some certain things and they shot us out of it so the credit goes to them. They shot it well."

It was a night when the Colts just had to tip their caps to the Tygers. But it wasn't a reason to pack it in and give up. Clear Fork came out of the locker room and started throwing their own version of little jabs to get back into the fight. The held the Tygers to just two points in the third quarter, which came on a layup from Kiersten Bradley with 15 seconds left in the quarter while chipping away at their lead. By the end of the third, the Colts trailed 36-26 and were right back in the game.

"We shot 70% from three in the first half and that is rare," Hudgens said. "I told them in the locker room at halftime that Clear Fork is going to start hitting some shots and we were going to start missing some because that's how basketball works. But, it was a good thing we has a cushion because they outscored us by 13 points in the second half."

Pacey Chrastina and Lyvia Davis came alive in the third quarter scoring 10 of the Colts' 12 points in the frame. Chrastina finished the game with 15 points while Davis added 13.

"We got back to who we are as a team," Sellers said. "We scattered, we like to run, we like to pressure and I feel like we didn't do that in the first half. That is on me. We tried to play a half court game because I feel like we matched up better with the personnel we had, and they took advantage. We mucked it up in the second half and it worked for us, but you cannot be down 20 going into the second half and expect to come back and win against a good team."

With her team reeling, Hilory came out in the fourth quarter and took over from the start. She scored a bucket on the first possession of the fourth tying the Tygers' third quarter total before dishing off to Manns for a bucket and adding another layup for a 6-0 run to push it out to 42-26 just seconds into the final quarter.

It was exactly the kind of response Hudgens expected out of his leaders.

"I just told them we had to figure it out," Hudgens said. "We took their best punch in the third quarter and it was all up to us to finish the fight and we did that."

He was happy with the way the Tygers played with composure.

"That is because of our experience," Hudgens said. "Our girls have played a lot of basketball and they never fold. We hardly even shot the ball in the third quarter so I thought the girls did well and did things to win the game down the stretch, but we have to fix that letdown quarter moving forward. We have Mount Vernon on Thursday and West Holmes on Saturday and those teams will make us pay if we have a bad quarter."

While the offense was struggling, the Tygers went to work on the defensive end and made the Colts work for everything.

"We stayed solid," Hilory said. "We kept our composure and played great defense when our offense wasn't working. We shot the ball well when we had good looks. We have a lot of confidence and we are ready to move on to the next one."

The Colts (2-2) closed the game out on a 15-8 run but simply ran out of time. Davis scored nine points in the fourth quarter including going a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

Bradley finished with eight points while Wentz, Manns and Kyeona Myers added seven apiece. But no one was bigger than Hilory who would have topped 20 points if she would have knocked down her free throws.

"She is big, but she will be even bigger when she starts making her free throws," Hudgens said. "She is in a big of a slump from the line, but she is so good everywhere else and helped us win this game."

The Tygers (4-2) were 7-for-12 from 3-point range for the game and shot 56% from the field. Bradley collected 12 rebounds on the night. Her team will be back in action on Thursday at home against Mount Vernon.

Clear Fork will host Ontario on Friday night and while they dropped their second game of the season, Sellers knows his team grew from the hard-fought contest where he was missing his best defender and had two of his best players playing nearly the entire second half with four fouls.

"It is early in the season and I like to think we will get better from these games," Sellers said. "While it is disappointing, I like watching these films and learning from them because games like these will propel us. We picked up Mansfield Senior, West Holmes and Bellevue this year for a reason. I have no problem if quality teams like Mansfield Senior come in and beat us if it makes us better."

jfurr@gannett.com

740-244-9934

Twitter: @JakeFurr11

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield Senior Tygers beat Clear Fork Colts in girls basketball