The ultimate upset is the goal of every underdog team that travels to a top teams home court. The Mansfield JR Tigers have been edged out of said upsets on a few occasions this season but have flipped the script a few times too. The Tigers traveled to Mountainburg on Friday, February 3rd to try to clip the wings of the mighty top seeded Dragons.
Mountainburg started off the game with a quick three-point shot but the Tigers answered with a Cooper Edwards bounce pass to Ethan Martin for a board bucket. The Dragons turned around and again dropped another three to force Mansfield to call a time-out with 3:08 left in the opening quarter. Down 9-2 after the timeout, the Tigers defense decided to get more aggressive. Steals by Joseph Carter and Andrew Burton gave the Tigers opportunities to close the scoreboard gap, but poor passing led to turnovers of their own keeping Mansfield from capitalizing. Fortunately, Mounatinburg’s long-range shooters were cooling off which kept the Tigers in the mix. The cool down gave Mansfield just enough momentum to get back in the game as Cooper Edwards iced the nets with a three-point shot off of an inbound. Andrew Burton was able to drop in a short jump shot at the buzzer, but the Tigers were still down 13-7 at the end of the first quarter.
A five-point difference wasn’t a huge lead for Mountainburg going into the second quarter but Mansfield knew they’d have to step it up to keep pace. The first step forward wasn’t a big score or smooth passing. Instead, it was Joseph Carter who jumped in among the bigger beasts at the boards to battle away a hard-fought rebound. Carter wasn’t done yet either as the durable Tiger athlete stood tall and took a charge on the ensuing Mounatinburg possession. Andrew Burton made sure Carter’s sacrifice wasn’t made in vain by swishing a sweet fadeaway jump shot which gave the Tigers their first points of the second half. With all of the effort the Tigers put out though, turnovers and missed opportunities on rebounds remained a thorn in the side of Mansfield. Ethan Martin knocked down a short jump shot to round up the scoring of the second quarter, but a mere four points in the quarter wouldn’t cut it as the Tigers went into halftime down 19-11.
Mansfield wasted little time trying to make up for their poor first-half performance as Andrew Burton took the ball downcourt for an easy uncontested layup. The Tigers defense remained aggressive which kept the Dragons temporarily at bay. Mountainburg finally found a gap in Mansfield’s defense and sank a three-pointer off of the mistake. Traevin Copeland hit an eye for an eye three-pointer of his own to square off the edges of the scoreboard. Ethan “Big E” Martin then came up big for the Tigers by rolling in a board bucket and followed that up by getting fouled on a rebound and draining both free throws. The Tigers kept on trucking with a tik-tack-toe passing attack as Jonah Martin dished the ball to Traevin Copeland at halfcourt who then sent the ball to a wide-open Andrew Burton for a layup. Mansfield’s defense stiffened up again with a Jonah Martin blocked shot which led to a Traevin Copeland three-pointer as the seconds ticked down to the end of the third quarter. Mansfield outscored Mountainburg 14-9 in the quarter but was still down 28-25 to the Dragons.
The Tigers were getting red hot as they entered the fourth quarter with every intention of upsetting the top-seeded Dragons. Mountainburg on the other hand had ice running through their veins and wasn’t going to go down easily. The Dragons rattled off a six-point run on Mansfield before Andrew Burton hit a three-point shot to keep Mountainburg at bay. Burton was able to hit another three but the Dragons kept the scoreboard lit to counter every Mansfiled score by two fold. Mansfield was able to put points up with a Jonah Martin put back bucket and Traevin Copeland three-pointer, but the scores didn’t faze Mountainburg as the Dragons went on to defeat Mansfield 45-37. The loss to Mountainburg is a hard pill to swallow for Mansfield, but the Tigers will have to choke it down quickly as the Tigers go out of the fire into the frying pan. The Tigers will host another potent team as they take on the Magazine Rattlers on Saturday, February 4th.
