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FOXBORO - It was a simple formula for the Foxboro High girls' basketball team.

Let the bigs bang down in the paint, grab rebounds and make it difficult for the Mansfield Hornets to make anything inside of 12 feet. And let the talented guard duo of Kristen Hoffman and Paula Alvarez make a timely three-pointer or a perfect pass to keep the Hornets from closing the gap.

It all worked to perfection for Foxboro Friday night, as the Warriors handed previously unbeaten Mansfield a 50-38 loss, Foxboro's sixth win in a row.

"We're getting confidence and we're learning that we can have a couple of bad minutes and then get it back on track," Foxboro coach Sarah Behn said. "Last year those bad minutes would elongate ... I think we're maturing."

The mature Warriors didn't let a difficult first quarter rattle them. Foxboro fell behind 9-6 in the first as there seemed to be a lid on the home hoop, but the Warriors outscored Mansfield 17-6 in the second quarter to take an eight-point lead into the break. "We looked a little sloppy on offense but again, we straightened ourselves out," Behn said.

But the story of the game was the Warrior defense, which held a Mansfield team that averaged over 51 points per game coming in to its lowest output of the season.

"Their defensive intensity is very good," Mansfield coach Mike Redding said. "They're well-coached, they make you work for every point you have to get. We didn't shoot great but they defended very well."

The Warriors focused much of their defensive prowess on Jess Eason. The Mansfield center came into the game averaging 13.6 points per game but had just three points, only the second time all year she was held to single-digit scoring.

"We did a really good job on Eason," Behn said. "I thought Rahema (Strouble),

Sam (Briggs) and Leigha (Tacey) did a great job on her. And we rebounded pretty well."

"They doubled her, they did a good job of keeping a second person close," Redding said. "We didn't get too many one-on-ones."

While the forwards worked hard on defense, the Foxboro guards repeatedly delivered comeback-killing blows, keeping the Hornets at a safe distance.

After Mansfield had cut the Foxboro lead to 19-15 with just over two minutes remaining in the first half, Alvarez hit the front end of two free throws and then a three-pointer from the right corner with 32 seconds left to make the half time score 23-15.

After the Hornets cut the lead to 25-21 in the third quarter, Hoffman hit a three-pointer from the left corner. A minute later, Alvarez hit her third three-pointer of the game to make the score 32-21. Alvarez finished with a game with 12 points while Hoffman had 11. "You work a minute and a half or two minutes to get a basket and then they answer in fifteen seconds," Redding said. "I thought that was the key, any time we got it to nine or eight they just banged it back up to 10 or 11, we just never could get it to five or six where you thought you could make a run at them.

"Hoffman and Alvarez are a tough combination. You normally see one good point guard, they have two point guards on the floor and both can shoot."

Rachel Jamieson hit a three that made an eight-point advantage an 11-point lead in the third, and Kayleen Whall buried a three that made a nine-point lead into a 44-32 advantage with just 3:20 remaining in the game.

"I'm psyched that its different people that are stepping up," Behn said.

Mansfield took an early lead on Briena Walker's (15 points) layup 21 seconds into the game and held the lead until just under one minute into the second quarter, when a great pass from Alvarez found Strouble on the left block, giving the Warriors the lead for good.

The win improved Foxboro to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the Hockomock League. Mansfield dropped to 7-1, 5-1 in the league. The Warriors host Stoughton on Sunday while Mansfield takes on Oliver Ames at home on Tuesday.