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- There was a measure of disappointment Tuesday that the Mansfield High School girls' basketball team did not win its own end-of-season tournament.

But the Hornets may be better for the experience. After Tuesday's 47-39 loss to St. Mary's-Bay View Academy of East Providence in the title game of the Mansfield Roundball Classic, the 12-8 Hornets will enter the MIAA Division 2-South Tournament having faced two teams that gave them valuable work on a vulnerability.

The Bengals' quickness at the guard positions and their ability to run full-court man-to-man pressure and half-court traps disrupted the Hornets' ability to set up their scorers during a 4 -minute stretch at the start of the second half. It was a similar circumstance to Mansfield's first-round victory over Notre Dame Academy of Hingham, although they were compensate for the quickness deficit in the second half of that game.

"We were waiting and holding our breath, hoping they wouldn't pick up full-court man and trap, because I was impressed with what they did against Somerville," Mansfield coach Mike Redding said. "They felt at halftime they needed to pick up the defensive pressure, and that was the key."

The Bengals, trailing 15-13 at halftime, scored 12 of the first 15 points of the second half to gain the edge they needed to carry through to the end of the game. Only Jill Johnson's three-pointer with 13:42 left interrupted the run that started with a 16-foot baseline jumper by Eileen Marran (who had eight points in the surge) and ended with Jillian Woerner's stop-and-pop jumper for a 25-18 lead with 11:35 to go. Heather McPherson's three-pointer with 11:14 left stopped the bleeding, but the damage had been done.

"They extended the head to five or seven off quick turnovers and steals," Redding said. "I don't think they could do it for 32 minutes, but they picked their five or six minutes to do it and it gave them the lead. Then they were just fighting us off down the stretch."

Kaitlyn Kennedy's three-pointer and a Jess Eason lay-in off Johnson's feed cut the deficit to 32-30 with 6:31 left, and the teams swapped three-point plays (Woerner's traditional three-point play with 5:35 left, Kennedy's 25-footer at 4:59) and free throws (two apiece by Brittany Wilson and McPherson) to keep Mansfield's deficit at two points.

But after Jess Battista's three-pointer with 1:48 left, St. Mary's-Bay View gradually pulled away by scoring seven of the last 11 points, including five at the foul line.

"They're a good basketball team," Redding said of the defending Rhode Island Division 1 champions, now 17-6. "This is another tournament-type atmosphere sort of game, and when you win six in a row, maybe it's better that you lose one going into the tournament."

Woerner had 12 points and Kashaia Cannon 10 to lead the Bengals. Wilson, a talented and athletic junior, pulled down 15 rebounds to go along with her nine points, 10 of the caroms as her team rallied from a 32-15 deficit off the glass in the first half to gain an important 18-16 edge in the second.

Despite the big rebounding edge, Mansfield only converted three of its 20 offensive rebounds into baskets.

"There were very few uncontested bunnies, even off rebounds," Redding said. "Rachel (Drummey) battled hard inside and so did Jill, but they were athletic enough to get a hand in our face and bang underneath."

Johnson led Mansfield with 11 points, 12 rebounds and three assists. McPherson and Drummey added nine points apiece and Drummey seven rebounds and two putback baskets for the tourney-bound Hornets, now 12-8.