By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
FAIR GROVE – For the Mansfield basketball team, it was fun while it lasted.
Make no mistake, the Lions extended their unbeaten start to the season with a dominant 82-60 victory over Fair Grove on Friday night. But a group that has embraced the role of being one of the region’s most underrated squads can only win so many times before people start to take notice.
Five Mansfield players finished in double-figures as the Lions improved to 13-0 and secured their second high-profile victory in an eight-day span. They knocked off Class 3 No. 4 Thayer to win the Cabool tournament on December 29, the day after the most recent state rankings were released.
The Lions were unranked in that poll, but are making a strong case to be included in future ones.
“Honestly, we kind of like nobody talking about us and us just going to work and playing the game,” Mansfield coach Cody Shelton said. “We kind of like it.”
A few other things the Lions enjoy — strong starts, diversified scoring, lights-out shooting and stifling defense — were all on display against a Fair Grove (9-5) team that was coming off a fourth-place finish at the Blue & Gold Tournament, its third semifinal appearance in school history.
Mansfield senior Tom Emerick scored his team’s first 11 points — including back-to-back treys to start the game — as the Lions opened with an 11-3 run and never looked back.
Emerick finished with 16 points, joining junior Landen Campbell (19) and seniors Chase Kelley (14), Stone Sawyers (13) and London Dennis (12) in double-figures.
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The Lions connected on eight 3-pointers in the first half, built a 42-23 lead at the break and finished with nine of them.
And defensively?
“They competed from the tip,” Fair Grove coach Bryan Tucker said. “They guarded us. They were very physical. They just whipped us physically tonight. That’s what I was most disappointed with our kids is just how we got pushed around. They got every single loose ball. I feel like they got every single loose ball that was on the floor or that was a 50-50 ball — it went their way.”
The Eagles are hardly alone in feeling that way, as teams have yet to find a way to stop a Mansfield group that has been laying the groundwork for this season since at least 2019, when Emerick and his fellow seniors won a conference championship on their middle school team.
“Everyone was saying that we were going to be really good in high school as a group,” Emerick recalled. “And it’s starting to show our senior year, finally.”
As the seniors have matured and gained experience through their high school careers, the team’s record has also improved. The Lions won just four games in their freshman season, but improved to 11-16 the following season and then finished 16-11 last year.
They’ve already nearly matched that win total — and it’s only January 6.
“We’ve always felt like we had a good core with this group,” Shelton said. “But we felt like – this whole year – we’ve been telling ourselves that we have that ultimate goal to win that district and compete for a state title. That’s just going to be our goal because we know we’re capable of being on that level.”
While that’s the kind of message that every team says at the start of every season, Mansfield’s run has allowed it to morph into something that becomes more and more tangible with each victory.
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF THE GAME
“It’s something different,” Emerick said. “I’ve never felt it before because this is the first time we’ve ever been 13-0, but we have a lot of confidence. But we know that every bit of that can go away if we don’t take care of business. We just have to have that mindset that we’re the best team on the court and prove it too.”
So far, they’re 13-for-13 — with depth and experience fueling their torrid start.
“We’re all pretty much the same size,” Emerick said. “Every one of us can almost do the exact same thing. If one of us doesn’t get a good look, we know the other one is going to be open.”
“They’ve played together for so long and their chemistry has really shown this year,” Shelton added. “And their willingness to sacrifice self for the team. I mean, these guys are the epitome of a selfless team.”
Jaxon Rowden hit six 3-pointers and finished with 24 points for Fair Grove, which trailed by as many as 27 points in the fourth quarter before closing on a late run.
“We know that they like to have hot starts,” Tucker said. “From what I’ve seen, they outscore opponents by about 10 points in the first half and that’s exactly what they did to us tonight. That was certainly a point of emphasis for us going into the game, to control pace and limit possessions. When they don’t miss, it is difficult for us to keep it close. We didn’t do a very good job offensively.”
Much of that can be attributed back to Mansfield’s defense, which forced turnovers on three of Fair Grove’s initial possessions. All led to Mansfield points — and momentum.
“We always want to make defense number one and rebounding number two,” Shelton said. “We want to make sure we do a great job defensively — and it depends. Whether it’s taking away the 3-point shot, taking away the inside away and then always dominate down the glass — those are the core tenants of what we want to do.”
With those core tenants and their senior core, it’s going to become increasingly more difficult for the Lions to stay under the radar — if they haven’t already blown their cover — especially with looming matches at Hartville on Tuesday and the Sparta tournament beginning January 23.
Whether they’re ranked or unranked in another week, the team’s primary focus won’t change.
“We have to basically have tunnel vision,” Emerick said. “Just see our goal at the very end of the tunnel. Just don’t look at anything else, really. We just take care of our business, get it done. That’s one step closer to getting to what our main goal is.”
MANSFIELD (13-0) 18 24 22 18 — 82
FAIR GROVE (9-5) 6 17 19 18 — 60
