Franklin drains 3-pointers, plays tough defense in topping Mansfield, 67-46

FRANKLIN — Shoot lights out from long distance and play suffocating defense, you’ll win your fair share of games.

Just ask Franklin.

The Panthers boys basketball team did both and rolled to a 67-46 win over Mansfield on Tuesday night between two of the best teams in the Hockomock League.

The Panthers (12-1, 9-0 league) made 14 3-pointers, and on defense never really allowed a lot of easy looks from Mansfield. After six straight losses to the Hornets, Franklin coach CJ Neely liked what he saw from his team.

“Sure, we did talk about the 3 being something we didn’t want to become reliant (on) in our offense,” Neely said. “We’re going to be really tough to beat if we’re making them. I thought we did some other things well. I thought we got in the paint well, and I think that’s what created it. It wasn’t just come down and jack shots. I thought we worked for those 3s tonight, as opposed to I think the previous games where we fell behind and just taking the first one that we saw. We weren’t really making the defense work.

“We talked a lot about reversing the ball, getting paint touches and making them work. They made us work. We looked at some of the Hudl film and the Mansfield possessions take up the whole bottom of the screen. Franklin possessions were very tiny. We want to make them work a little bit more.”

Those fruitful possessions led to a balanced scoring effort. Henry DiGiorgio led the Panthers with 17 points, including five treys. Sean O’Leary had 15 points, and Caden Sullivan scored 13 points, including three triples.

Nate Creedon led Mansfield (8-3, 7-2 league) with 16 points and four threes, and teammate Davon Sanders had 14 points.

Early on, a 14-0 run in the first quarter led to a 20-6 Franklin lead after eight minutes. O’Leary had seven points in the run after two early trifectas from DiGiorgio.

Mansfield battled back and got to within 22-19 at one point, but Franklin finished the half with a 9-2 run punctuated by a Andrew Benoit three.

Franklin effectively put it away in the third quarter. The Panthers hit five threes, including two from Sullivan, and Mansfield simply couldn’t keep up.

“Going into the game, we kind of knew they were going to double O’Leary down in the post, and that the weak side was going to be open for threes,” DiGiorgio said. “We did a good job tonight, Sean especially, of seeing those guys open in the weak side of the court. We got great looks, and they were going in tonight.”