The Mansfield Sr Lady Tigers seem to be getting better with every passing game. This was proven yet again on Tuesday, February 2 when they hosted the Magazine Lady Rattlers. Both teams had a lot of post regular-season goals on the line coming into the game, but it was the Lady Tigers who were victorious with a 55-29 final score.
The last time these two clashed, the Lady Rattlers held off Mansfield all the way into the 4th quarter before Mansfield pulled away with a 60-40 win at the Rattlers Den. With this game being played in The Jungle, the Lady Tigers had to get off to a better start in front of their home crowd. They did just that with a 17-10 lead in the first quarter and stretched it out to 30-12 by halftime. Senior Danielle Lillie was extremely selfless in the first half as she sacrificed possible points for herself by shifting the ball out to her teammates thus giving them the automatic scores. “D-Assist Queen” led the team with 6 of the Lady Tigers’ 13 assists in the game.
Mansfield didn’t hang up on any halftime blues and came out again on fire against the Lady Rattlers. With heavy defensive pressure, the Lady Tigers began portraying their best Jessie James moves by stealing the ball every chance they could and taking it back to light up the scoreboard. Try as they may, the Lady Rattlers just couldn’t keep up the pace as Mansfield ended the 3rd quarter with a commanding 50-20 lead. With the bench slowly filling in for the Lady Tigers starters, everyone could tell that the lead opera singer was tuning up her voice for the grand finale. Once the buzzer sounded, the Mansfield Sr Lady Tigers stole the show with a 55-29 victory. The Lady Tigers win currently leaves them sitting in second place in the conference and has Magazine at fourth in conference play.
Mansfield’s Makayla Strutton came in big with 22 points followed by Chloe Creekmore with 10, Brooke Wright with 9, Danielle Lillie with 8, and Seven Sanderson, Skylynn Harris, and Kiara Thomas with 2 each. Magazine’s Kylie Robinson led with 12 points, Kiara Vasquez netted 8, Carly Parrish scored 3, Elizabeth Greek picked-up 2, and Jordyn Krigbaum made 1.
With their Regional Tournament appearance inevitable now, the Lady Tigers will focus their attention on their game against the ever formidable opponent, the Mountainburg Lady Dragons. Mountainburg holds the third-place position in the conference and still has the Lady Tigers and number one Acorn left to play. With a win over the Lady Dragons, Mansfield will be guaranteed second place in conference. Then the waiting game will commence as the Lady Tigers hold their hopes for a Mountainburg victory at Acorn which would put Mansfield as the conference champions. The Magazine Lady Rattlers will go into tonight’s battle against JC Westside with a 9-8 total play record and are looking to score a Round 2 win against the Lady Rebels.
