Pictured is Ethan Pettus
The Mansfield Tigers and Magazine Rattlers put on the show of all shows on Monday, February 22. The Tigers had fallen short in both previous epic battles with the Rattlers earlier in the season by a combined scoring gap of 10 points. Down two games to the Rattlers and playing in Magazines Snake Den wasn’t going to be easy on Mansfield’s confidence going into their District Tournament matchup. But Mansfield didn’t back down and after a 62-55 overtime win, the Tigers now have their first Regional Tournament bid in 3 years.
The atmosphere was electric leading up to tip-off and the Tiger faithful began thundering their cheers. Unfortunately, it would take more than cheers for the Tigers to pull off a miracle in Magazine. Mansfield was off the mark offensively and tried too hard to force passes down low which lead to turnovers. The Tigers were content on getting to the backboards, but the Rattlers’ defense was playing solid physical basketball and owning Mansfield in the paint. The off the mark shots and turnovers gave Magazine an early 16-10 lead over the Tigers at the end of the 1st quarter.
Down by six points, Mansfield had to rethink their game plan on both offense and defense. The Tigers still had issues getting into the paint for power plays, so they began to pick Magazine off from just inside the perimeter with short jump shots. The success of this new plan limited the Rattler’s ability to create turnovers and eventually slow their offense down. This shifted momentum in the Tiger’s favor allowing Codi Chic and Ethan Pettus to hit a few threes just before the half. Mansfield outscored Magazine 11 to 9 in the 2nd quarter but still found themselves down as they walked into halftime staring at a 25-21 Magazine lead.
Going into the 3rd quarter, Tigers fans began to soak in the belief of a third loss to the Rattlers as Mansfield allowed frustration, foul trouble, and poor decision making to take its toll on the team. Without their heads in the game, Magazine stepped ahead of the Tigers at the end of the 3rd with a score of 38-32. Everyone knows that the 4th quarter is where games are won though and the Tigers were not going to be denied this time. As the teams went back and forth in court warfare, the Tigers gained their first lead of the game. That was short-lived though as Magazine took the lead back on their next possession forcing the Tigers to foul to stop the clock. As the clock ticked down, so did Mansfield’s chances of victory.
In a last-ditch effort with seconds left in the game and the score sitting 48-45 Magazine, Codi Chick took a contested shot from the three-point range and doinked the ball off the rim. Game Ove…………wait! Pettus snatched the deep rebound outside the three-point range and shot the loudest swish ever that echoed throughout the gymnasium as the Tigers tied the game up 48-48 with only 0.5 seconds left on the clock. It was time. Time for Overtime! “The shot was originally meant for Codi Chick but when I got the rebound, I knew we didn’t have time to set up another shot so I had to just shoot it. It was definitely blind luck,” explained Pettus.
Overtime with two monster teams who play physical basketball with literally their seasons on the line. Yeah, it was that kind of OT as both teams scored, rebounded, bumped, and fouled for four minutes of pure chaos. Mansfield would shoot and score only to have the Rattlers do the same. It was the clock though that brought the final score to what it was. With time running out, Magazine was forced to foul to stop the clock sending Mansfield to the free-throw line. The Tigers made good work of their shots and ended the game with a 62-55 win.
“We lost to Magazine at their place when we were down a lot of players and lost to them at our place when we had just gotten everyone back but not much time to work together. So our guys practiced hard and with confidence leading up to this game” stated Head Coach, Keith Stovall. “We knew their #55 (Cameron Raggio) would be hard to stop but our strategy was to keep single coverage on him. Our defense stayed disciplined by doing this and kept Magazine from getting easy spot-up threes. We also knew that we had to do a much better job of patience in our offense and get higher percentage shots which we accomplished tonight.”
Scoring for the Tigers was Codi Chick with 26, JoJo Bailey with 12, Ethan Pettus with 9, Bri Sanderson with 6, Zayne Dugan with 5, and Tyler Escalante with 4. When asked what has brought on his late-season improvements, Pettus responded, “Honestly, I just want to win. We didn’t have the season that we necessarily wanted but this is our chance to win it all and I want to take advantage of that.” The Miracle at Magazine will be one that will be remembered for years to come, but the Sr Tigers are already past that game and looking forward as they must prepare quickly for another physical team. Mansfield will now travel from the Snake Pit to the Dragons Lair on Thursday, February 25th to take on the #1 seeded Mountainburg Dragons in the District Semi-Finals. And how does Ethan plan to achieve success in Mountainburg’s hostile environment? “We just need to follow our coach’s game plan to the best of our ability!” This match-up will kick off at 7:30 pm.
