Mansfield Lady Lions hold on to beat Plato

The Mansfield Lady Lions’ basketball split their first pair of games of the winter season, both coming on the road.
They picked up their first victory of 2024-2025 when they traveled to Plato on Dec. 9 and left town with a solid 43-38 win. Mansfield scored only four points in the opening quarter in spite of Cali Lemons’ 3-pointer as they quickly found themselves trailing 9-4.
The Lady Lions responded with five different players scoring in the second quarter to help them tie the game at 16-16 at halftime.
Elly Williams helped Mansfield gain some momentum in the third quarter with six points while Gentry Alsup added a 3-pointer as the Lady Lions took a three point edge into the fourth.
Addie Jones scored six points and Lemons added five of her own in a 17-point final frame to help the Lady Lions win the game by six.
Lemons scored a team-high 11 points; Williams had 10 points; Jones scored nine; Tripp had seven; Kendall Sanders added three points; while both Kayley Kingery and Chloe Napier scored two points.
In the season opener against Willow Springs, the Lady Lions’ offense scored eight points or less in the first three quarters and lost the contest, 50-31.
Tripp made five free throws in the first half and scored seven of her team’s 14 points as Mansfield trailed the Lady Bears 27-14 at halftime.
After scoring just five points in the third quarter, the Lady Lions did have six different players scored two points in a 12-point fourth.
Unfortunately, the Lady Lions lost by 19. Tripp led Mansfield with nine points; Kingery had five points; Jones, Lemons and Williams each had four points; Napier scored three points; and Mylee Sullivan had two points.