Lions crush Bulldogs, fall in semis

The Mansfield Lions’ basketball team was riding a two-game winning streak when it entered last week’s Class 2, District 10 Tournament hosted on their own court.
Their most recent loss was a 12-point defeat on Gainesville’s home court, the same team they drew for the first round of postseason play.
In the rematch, the Lions avenged that loss in a big way as they scored 20 points in both the first and third quarters as they cruised to a 67-45 victory.
Unfortunately, their season came to an end in the district semifinals against No. 1 seed Norwood, 58-34. Since a regular season contest was postponed due to weather, the district match-up was also a Summit Conference game. The Pirates’ win gave them the outright Summit Conference title. (Statistics from that contest are in Norwood’s article.)
Against the Bulldogs in the first round, Malachi Ussery and Charlie Grubbs both provided an offensive spark with five points in a 20-point quarter.
Up seven, Haven Proetz made a pair of 3-pointers and Blake Henry hit one as the Lions extended their lead to 10 at halftime.
Mansfield blew the game open in the third quarter with a 20-9 run as Kellen Campbell had eight points and Proetz added five of his own.
Six different Lions scored in the fourth quarter as Fisher Croney led with three points to help Mansfield secure the 22-point win.
Proetz scored a team-high 15 points; Henry added 13; Campbell added 10 points; both Riley Stidham and Ussery had nine points; Grubbs and Croney each scored five points; and Riley Pierson had one point.
The Lions finished the season at the .500 mark with a 13-13 overall record.