MANSFIELD, Mass. - Some players grab all the headlines, even when they don't do something right. Then there's other players - consistent, steady players that will silently be the difference.
Mansfield junior Michael Boen was the latter on Monday night, scoring a game-high 19 points and grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds to lead the Hornets to a 63-49 win over BC High.
Boen shined brightest in the fourth quarter, picking up eight points and six rebounds in the final frame, helping Mansfield expand their nine-point lead at the start of the quarter to 14 by the end.
"He's gotten better since game one," Mansfield head coach Mike Vaughan said. "He was kind of passive and didn't do a whole lot offensively. Last game, he did real well and tonight obviously too. He's steady - he's going inside out, he's getting in transition and hitting his foul shots so I'm very happy about that. I thought Boen did a fantastic job rebounding the ball on both ends of the floor."
The biggest change came when the Hornets switched from man-to-man to a 2-3 zone in the first half. The Eagles picked up five offensive rebounds in the first quarter alone but were limited to just three the rest of the game.
"We had to mix up a little 2-3 [zone], with guys logging a lot of minutes, to see if they could still be playing a high level at the end," said Vaughan. "I thought it changed up their flow a little bit. [BC High] is pretty aggressive team so I thought by changing up the zone it kind of made them a passive team. They did get a lot of three's out of it so we kind of had to manage it so they didn't make three after three.
Beyond Boen's 19 points, Rocky DeAndrade and Ryan Boutler each added 12 points and senior Kyle Wisnieski added 11 points - including back-to-back threes in the fourth quarter to extend a nine-point lead to 15.
"He's that type of kid," Vaughan said of Wisnieski. "He said it in the locker room when we met before the game, 'This is a good statement game.' He knows what this is all about, he knows how big this game is. He plays the best in those situations."
BC High coach Bill Loughnane focused on early opportunities that went awry for his team.
"Especially in the first, I thought we got some really good looks and the ball didn't go in," Loughnane said, after his team shot just 24% from the field in the first quarter. "When [Mansfield] got the open looks, it went in."
Mansfield will be back in action on Friday when they take on Springfield Cathedral in the annual Shooting Touch Shootout, this year at Tufts University.
"This was a good statement win for us going against another Division 1 opponent that's going to win some games this year," Vaughan said.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.