Pictured is Brooke Wright for the block
As the old Jerry Reed song goes “When you’re hot, you’re hot”. The Mansfield Sr Lady Tigers are beyond hot right now, they’re downright nuclear. With a 59-23 routing of the JC Westside Rebels on Friday, January 15th, the Lady Tigers have officially completed their first round of conference play without a blemish. You read that right. The Mansfield Sr Lady Tigers are 7-0, aka undefeated against conference opponents.
The Lady Rebels started out fierce, but little did they know that the Lady Tigers had found a newfound weapon that hadn’t been used most of the season. It wasn’t points because the Lady Tigers have become rich in those. And it wasn’t steals because that’s an every game ordeal. It was Rebounds. Chloe Creekmore, Makayla Strutton, and Natalie Allison all ripped down an amazing 7 rebounds each in the game. But wait, there’s more. Skylynn Harris had 5 rebounds, Brooke Wright came up with 4 rebounds, and Danielle Lillie, Seven Sanderson, and Sara Fisher had 2 rebounds each leading Mansfield’s team rebound total sitting at 36 rebounds!
Rebounds lead to points and everyone loves points. Well boy howdy did the Lady Tigers flood JC Westside with points. Mansfield struck the Lady Rebels with an average of 2.5 points for each JC Westside point. Leading the tally on the scoreboard was Makayla Strutton who smoked JC’s cannons with 21 points and 8 steals in the game. The baller on the court was Danielle Lillie who was a solid do it all. Lillie jumped the Lady Rebels with some sweet ankle-breaking footwork gathering 13 points, 5 deflections, and 5 steals.
To make things worse for JC Westside, the Lady Tigers are loaded with equal talent from starters to the bench that spread the wealth of points against opponents. The Lady Rebels were not prepared for that. Natalie Allison, Brooke Wright, and Chloe Creekmore put 6 points each up on the board while Kiara Thomas and Skylynn Harris hooped up 2 points in the match. With the game well in hand, Sara Fisher slapped the closing lid on the Lady Rebels with 3 points.
The Lady Tigers’ individual stats are great, but their team numbers were downright fantastic. When JC Westside tried to slow the pace of Mansfields speedy game, the Lady Tigers made them pay by hitting 71% of all of their free throws. In the second half of the game, Mansfield’s defense held the Lady Rebels to only 6 total points. Possibly the biggest team factor was the Lady Tigers spreading “The Rock” around with 10 assists. Defensively, Mansfield held the Lady Rebels to only 6 points in the entire second half!
With Round 1 in the books, the Lady Tigers have achieved a feat that hasn’t been done in Lady Tigers’ basketball years as they sit atop their conference at the halfway point of the season. But that’s merely a starting bonus for these girls. An undefeated overall conference record is their SMALLEST goal. A Mansfield Lady Tiger State Basketball Title is their end game.
Another round of conference play must be played first though, starting with the ever fierce #2 Acorn Lady Tigers on Tuesday, January 19th. Mansfield pounced Acorn earlier in the year at home, but this time Acorn knows what’s coming and will have home-court advantage. The Lady Tigers will have their hands full for sure, but in this new COVID era, they plan to “wash their hands” of Acorn once and for all.
