MANSFIELD, Mass. Three seasons ago, head coach Bob Boen and his Brockton Boxers jumped out to a big 18-2 lead over his nephew Michael Boen, than a freshman, and the Mansfield Hornets.
Fast forward to Sunday and Michael and his Hornets returned the favor, as Mansfield sprinted out to a 14-0 lead and an eventual 69-61 win over Brockton.
After Mansfield’s big first quarter, the Boxers went on to outscore the Hornets in both the second and third quarters, getting with one point in the fourth with just over three minutes left. But it was Michael Boen who went on to score six of Mansfield’s final 10 points to pick up his third straight win over his uncle.
“There was a lot of doubt,” Mansfield head coach Mike Vaughan said despite leading the whole game. “But it was good to get out of here with a win. We needed to get a win against that type of team after the Brighton loss. We jumped on them every, sustain it and I wouldn’t say never look back, but we never we down.”
With Mansfield up 59-58, sophomore Sam Goldberg cut through the defense to the basket to make it 61-58. Michael Boen then took matters into his own hands. First, Boen made it 63-58 with a bucket with just over a minute left. Then after a stop from the Hornets, Boen took the ball straight to the hoop, converted at the rim and drew a foul. Been sank the free throw with less than a minute to go to make it 66-58 and put the game out of reach.
Boen finished with a game-high 23 points and added 10 rebounds - his second straight double-double against the Boxers - while classmate Ryan Boulter scored 19 points and had seven rebounds.
“We did everything we could to stop them,” Bob Boen said about Boulter and Boen. “We had two guys chase them all over rand everyone else keep an eye on them to help out. They’re a good solid pair and they both do great things. Coach Vaughan runs a very nice offense and they make a lot of nice back cuts. They don’t just stand there when they’re not open, they keep working to get open.”
Despite going up 14 in the first quarter, Brockton was able to get within four points less than a minute into the second half. But within five minutes, Mansfield was back up 10. The Boxers got within four inside the first two minutes of the final quarter, but once again Mansfield was able to create some separation and keep their lead.
“It seemed like anytime we cut it to one, even the third quarter we cut it to four, something would go wrong, we’d make a mistake,” Bob Boen said. “I thought we were in a hurry to get ahead. We never sat down on defense and just stopped them three or four times in a row.”
Goldberg finished with 12 points and eight boards, scoring half os his points and grabbing half of his rebounds in the final quarter. He also drew a charge in the final quarter that kept momentum on Mansfield’s side.
“I thought Sam Goldberg played tremendous on both sides,” Vaughan said. “He had a huge basket [in the fourth]. If he can continue to get back, Matt Ehrlich is continuing to get better and if we can get a little more out of Nick, this team is improving each week. We needed a win like this to put us back in the conversation of being a quality team.”
Michael Boen finished with a 3-1 record against Brockton and his uncle with the lone loss coming during his freshman year. Over the last three years, Michael has averaged 14.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. Younger brother Max is now 2-0 against Brockton.
“I needed this one to even it off,” Boen joked. “It’s getting harder and harder [to play him]. This is his senior year and I’m doing everything I can to stop him scoring. You kind of want him to have a good game but he can’t have a good game if we want to win. He’s such a big part of their team this year.”
Mansfield (11-2) is scheduled to play again on Tuesday with a trip to Stoughton.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.