Basketball has been over for a couple of months now, but you can’t tell that to Mansfield’s men’s basketball Coach, Joshua Brown. Brown has been a workaholic since the final buzzer of the 2021 season setting up open gyms, studying old film, and working on honing his players skill sets. On Monday, June 20th, Brown and the Tigers took 71 South to the Waldron basketball camp to showcase what they’ve been working on as of late. The camp hosted Waldron, Magazine, Ozark, Acorn, Hackett, Mountainburg, and the Tigers. Mansfield faced off against three very familiar foes at the camp. Conference powerhouse Mountainburg, next-door neighbor Hackett, and the always great hardwood kings, the Acorn Tigers.
The Mansfield Sr High Tigers tipped things off with a scrimmage against a fiery conference opponent in the Mountainburg Dragons. The scrimmage didn’t start off well by any means for the Tigers with the Dragons playing a red hot defense that denied Mansfield at each step. Zach Hayslip was able to find a chink in the Dragons passing game though, as he stole the ball and took it to the boards allowing Mansfield to get some momentum. Clint Stovall followed Hayslip’s steal and score with a well-aimed 3-point shot closing the Dragons lead to only 11-9 at the seven-minute mark. Coach Brown rotated some youth into the game and they did not disappoint. Peyton Martin was able to quickly learn Mountainburg’s shooting tendencies after just a few plays and capitalized defensively with a huge blocked shot on the Dragons. Axle Martin and Cameron Pettus also showed that they want to earn their spot on the court with some heavy-pressure defense. It was Stovall though who kept the offense going as he racked up 14 points in the scrimmage. Unfortunately, even with all of the smooth moves and hustle the Tigers put in, they came up short falling to Mountainburg 24-22.
With one game down and two to go, Mansfield applied their “next up” method and moved on to Game2 against the Hackett Hornets. Although the two programs are not in the same basketball conference, both teams proved that their rivalry still remains as strong as ever. The Tigers started off quickly with Travis Toby dipping low to steal the ball from the Hornets for a super sport steal and score. If you wanted to see a scoring fest between these two teams though, you would have been highly disappointed. This was a defensive party. Hayslip popped the first balloon in this fiesta with a huge blocked shot which got the benches roaring. Not to be outdone, Greyson Baggett was stingy with the defensive party favors as he didn’t let a Hornet out of his sight. Baggett was able to force Hackett to make poor passing decisions which created turnovers for the Tigers. Even with all of the defensive excitement, the game was still close at the half with Hackett leading 6-4. Hackett found a way out of the Tigers defensive claws to score six unanswered points extending their lead. Mansfield answered back with some smooth moves from Peyton Martin to close the gap. Aaron Person turned the tide for Mansfield as he stole the ball and dished it to Austin Ruiz for a quick bucket tying the game at 12 all. The final swat at the Hornets came from Clint Stovall who drilled a three-point shot at the buzzer giving Mansfield a 19-12 final over Hackett. Braxton Byers, Travis Toby, Peyton Martin, and Austin Ruiz all knocked down points in the game but it was again Stovall who led the team, this time with 11 points.
With the Tigers sitting at 1-1 versus opponents, they were up for a tie-breaker game when they faced off against the Acorn Tigers. With the newest Arkansas Activities Association shake-up, Acorn will be replaced with Hector on the Tigers 2022 Basketball schedule so these two will not meet for conference play this upcoming season. That didn’t matter though as both programs still played like they were vying for another Conference Championship in the scrimmage. Neither team backed down and both played lights out, but it was The Mansfield Tigers that came out victorious this time with a 27-22 win. With the final game in the bag, Brown and the Tigers loaded up the bus and headed home with a 2-1 winning record in their scrimmages. “I thought our Senior High boys played really tough,” said Brown. “We have been preaching mental and physical toughness this summer and the guys are seeing some success by buying into that. We are getting to play a lot of guys while also learning to care more about reps and situations than the scoreboard. We want to win of course, but using this off-season to get some guys in game-like situations to improve on the teams depth is a positive. Defensively, I feel like we are improving but still need to keep getting better as we continue to build that defense”.
The Arkansas Activities Association has set the states two-week Dead Period for June 26 through July 10th. This means that school-affiliated sports will not be allowed to practice or work out during that time span. Rules are rules so the Tigers will abide by those rules. That being said, don’t be surprised if the players voluntarily have some fun with a few pickup games at public and church basketball courts during that time. Mansfield is hungry for their season to start so they can show the state that they will continue to be a threat to anyone, anywhere, at any time against anyone looking to lace up against them.
