NORTH ATTLEBORO - The Mansfield High School girls' basketball team ventured to the Ken Pickering Gymnasium with modest goals Monday night.

"We came in tonight just really wanting to earn their respect. We didn't earn it the first time we played, and we just wanted to battle hard and hang in there," Mansfield coach Mike Redding said, referring to a poorly played, 59-34 loss to North Attleboro in the consolation game of the recent Attleboro Area Girls' Holiday Tournament.

The Hornets emerged from Monday's game with respect, and then some.

Outscoring the Rocketeers 7-1 over the last 2:48 of play, Mansfield improved to 3-4 overall and 3-2 in the Hockomock League with a hard-fought, 49-46 triumph in the first of the three games between the rivals that will count in the league standings.

"We really were embarrassed in the first one," said Redding. "We didn't play well ... and I told the kids, since that game, we've practiced very well, like a more mature team. "And tonight we played to win more," he said. "The last couple of games were tight games and we were a little cautious. Tonight, I thought we played with a little more guts. We played to make plays instead of hoping they wouldn't make them."

Mansfield held the lead for most of the turnover-filled game, reaching a high of 10 points midway through the second quarter and still sitting at five (41-36) with 5:15 left to play.

But two free throws by North's Katie Noll, a free throw by Lauren Sexton on a technical foul called against Mansfield's Colleen Hooper and a three-pointer on the subsequent possession by Nicole Meyer put North out front, 42-41, with 4:04 to go.

Nicole Matte's three-point play with 2:48 left countered a game-tying free throw by Briena Walker, putting the Rocketeers up 45-42. But they wouldn't score another field goal in the game, while Mansfield exploited its height and rebounding advantage down the stretch.

Six-foot sophomore Jess Eason scored in the paint on a feed by Walker to start the Hornets' rally with 2:02 left. Senior forward Meredith Maroney then converted a missed three-pointer by Hooper to reclaim the lead, 46-45, with 1:37 left.

Walker added to the lead with a drive to the basket, then stole the ball to set up a one-and-one shooting situation for teammate Jen Call with 21.4 seconds left. Call missed the shot, but Maroney pulled down the rebound and dished back to the senior guard, who returned to the foul line with 17.5 seconds left and sank the last point of the Mansfield run.

"This could be a turning point for us as a young team," Redding said.

Mansfield assumed the lead during a 13-3 run to close the first quarter. Hooper, the high-energy sophomore guard, threw in 12 of her team-high 14 points in the quarter before drawing her third foul on a questionable charging call.

The Hornets' tall forwards (Maroney, Eason and Rachel Drummey) combined for a 6-0 run that created a 28-18 lead with 1:27 left in the half, but Matte - who did not start for North, but produced game-high totals of 16 points and 13 rebounds - started a 5-0 run to close the half with a jumper in the lane.

Matte had four points during an 11-4 run over the last 3:41 of the third quarter, drawing the Rocketeers to within a point at the break. But Maroney scored in the paint and Walker went coast-to-coast with a defensive rebound to start the final quarter, restoring Mansfield's five-point lead. North's biggest problem in the final quarter was its inability to penetrate to the basket against the taller Mansfield frontcourt.

"They're very physical," North coach John DelBonis said. "Their guards are physical, their forwards are physical ... they just beat us to loose balls. If there was a ball on the floor, they got it."

Forced to shoot from outside, the Rocketeers hit only one of their nine three-point attempts in the final quarter and were 2-21 from outside the circle overall.

"We've got to get back on track," said DelBonis, whose Rocketeers (3-5, 2-4) fell to their third straight loss. "We were a little mentally out of sorts and physically out of sorts."

Sexton scored eight points and Meyer and Grace Sandland seven apiece for the Rocketeers, who visit Stoughton Thursday.

For Mansfield, which ended a four-game losing skid, Eason scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds, Walker had nine points, seven rebounds and five assists and Maroney added eight points. The Hornets entertain Foxboro Wednesday.