The Mansfield Lady Tigers have had their fair share of battles in the 2A over the past couple of seasons. Magical moments at Magazine, amazing games against Acorn, and out of this world showdowns with the Future School Rockets. But win or lose, one team seems to always give Mansfield fits. The Mountainburg Lady Dragons. The Lady Tigers met Mountainburg for the first time in 2023 on Tuesday, January 10th in what was sure to be another knockdown drag out between the Red and Blue 2A powerhouses.
Past experiences told the Lady Tigers that Mountainburg would be a threat. It didn’t take long for the Lady Dragons to prove their case as they shut down Mansfield’s potent offense for the entire first quarter holding the Lady Tigers to a mere 13-12 lead. When the second quarter clock began to run, it was clear that the Lady Tigers were tired of playing Game of Thrones with Mountainburg. Kaylee Ward brought down the backboards with back-to-back board buckets which took the wind right out from under the Lady Dragons’ wings. Both teams were still playing extremely aggressive defense as fouls began to rack up on almost every player on the court. Mansfield wasn’t perfect with their free throws averaging only one point per free throw set. Fortunately for the Lady Tigers, Mountainburg’s free throw shooting was about the same. What wasn’t off shot for the Lady Tigers, was Mansfield’s three-point accuracy. The Lady Tigers extended their lead behind the shooting skills of Natalie Allison and Brooklyn Adams who both pulled the plug and drained threes with ease. Kynslee Ward tacked on a few unopposed layups to give Mansfield a commanding 34-17 lead over Mountainburg at the half.
Although slow starts have been the Lady Tigers calling card in their wins this season, this game was against a Mountainburg team who could potentially explode the second-half scoreboard. The Lady Dragons made a quick boom on the scoreboard by putting up the first second-half points, but Mansfield wasn’t shaken by Mountainburg’s early scoring. That’s because the Lady Tigers have a stick of dynamite who goes by the name of Kynslee Ward and when her fuse is lit, you’d better look out. Ward riddled the Lady Dragons defense with every method of scoring possible. Full-court layups, three-pointers, rebounds with putbacks, free throws, basically, if you can name it, Ward did it. Mansfield called a time-out with 2:58 left in the quarter to give the Lady Tigers a well-deserved breather. The Lady Tigers didn’t cool off though as Kaylee Ward and Alyson Edwards went right back to putting up points. To end the quarter on the right note, Kynslee Ward dropped back-to-back three-point shots to set the score at 52-27 in Mansfield’s favor when the third-quarter buzzer sounded.
The Lady Tigers didn’t take their lead for granted going into the fourth quarter. Alyson Edwards was fouled right off the bat and then turned around and put up a board bucket to force an early time-out by Mountainburg. After the time out, Mansfield sent in their defensive specialist group to close out the game. Normally when Skylynn Harris, Seven Sanderson, Kaylie Lowery, Brooklyn Adams, and Raine Hecox hit the court it means it’s time to run the clock out. Not this time though. Instead, they showed up and showed out on the scoreboard. Seven Sanderson kicked things off with a rebound and put back. Skylynn Harris followed suit with a putback of her own and then knocked down a three-pointer. Sanderson and Harris again dominated the backboards for another pair of baskets which allowed Kaylie Lowery to go unguarded for a sweet spin and swish score. The Lady Tigers continued to pour it on Mountainburg as Raine Hecox made it rain down more points with a long range three-point shot and was backed up by Skylynn Harris who sank the final points of the game with another three-pointer. When it was all said and done, Mansfield walked off the court with a dominant 70-33 win over Mountainburg.
The victory extends the Lady Tigers overall record to 16-2 and gives them an undefeated 4-0 record in their conference. With their only two losses being to teams from larger conferences (Dover and Springdale Har-Ber) and multiple wins over other bigger teams, the Lady Tigers have nothing to hang their heads about. On the other hand, Mansfield has outscored their conference opponents 242-147 leaving little doubt that they are one of the favorites picked to win it all in 2023. They’ll have to keep working though as they host JC Westside for Homecoming on Friday, January 13th to take on the Lady Rebels. Although JC Westside is beatable, they also have the ability to stun the Lady Tigers too. Mansfield better bring their A-game to keep their immaculate record intact.
