SHARON, Mass. - The battle between the Kelley-Rex and Davenport's best teams lived up to the hype, as Mansfield downed Sharon 80-68 in a New Year's Eve matinee matchup.
The Hornets led by as much as 14 in the second half and Sharon pulled within four in the fourth quarter but Ryan Boulter's three pointer with under three minutes to play proved to be a dagger shot.
Boutler finished with a game-high 28 points - 21 of which came in the second half.
"He's an animal," Mansfield point guard Rocky DeAndrade said.
Back-to-back three pointers from Sharon's Jimmy Fritzson and Jordan Mello-Klein pulled the Eagles within four at 67-63 but Boutler hit a free throw and then drained a contested three pointer to put Mansfield up 71-63.
"He has a tendency to disappear at times in games where he doesn't look for his own and he doesn't set things up," Mansfield head coach Mike Vaughan said about Boutler. "I really want him going to basket, but when he hits one or two, he can get that third or fourth going. For him, every look he gets at the basket is a good look whether he's covered or not."
Boutler shot 7/9 from the field in the second half and has complete trust of his teammates, even when there's a hand right in his face.
"I have full trust in Ryan," DeAndrade said. "When he gets the ball and he's going to make a move and shoot, I know theres a good chance its going to go in. We trust in Ryan's ability to create for himself. We run plays for him but if he's gotta do it himself, he can do it."
Both teams made runs in the first, with Mansfield getting the best of Sharon in the first quarter. The Hornets shot an impressive 10/14 from the floor and hit all four of their free throws to make it 29-17 after one. Sharon responded in the second quarter behind a combined 16 points from Fritzson and Brian Mukasa to head into halftime down 42-35.
"In the first quarter, I was actually shocked how efficient we were on offense," Vaughan said. "We scored in different ways - foul shots, three's, got to the rim - but we were kind of doing a little bit of everything we wanted. They came back and delivery a second punch and I think we absorbed it through the first half and I think the second half was similar to that - we absorbed their punch and did what we needed to do defensively. I knew they were going to score but its been a long time since we've given up almost 70 points, in a league game especially."
Two free throws from Boulter and one from Michael Boen gave Mansfield their biggest lead in the game at 56-42 but Sharon closed out the quarter strong and trailed 63-55 at the end of three.
"We withstood a run in the fist half from them, we withstood a run in the second half from them," said Sharon head coach Bruce Jackman. "I think the turning point was in the fourth quarter when we had five possessions and never got a shot off. We turned it over a couple of times - we just got nothing out of it and then they came down and just buried a three. It went from four to seven and it was just awful after that. We just really ran out of gas."
Mansfield junior Michael Boen added 18 points and nine rebounds, and DeAndrade - who was celebrating his birthday - added 15 points.
Fritzson had a team-high 19 points for Sharon while Earl Dessesaure had 15 points and eight rebounds, Mello-Klein added 14 points and Mukasa finished with 13 points.
Mansfield improves to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in Hockomock play and will host Oliver Ames on Friday. Sharon's first loss drops them to 4-1 and 2-1 in league play and will travel to North Attleboro on Friday.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.