The Mansfield Lady Lions and the Hartville Lady Eagles both entered last week’s game in Hartville with a victory over each other of at least 15 points.
Hartville won the first battle, 45-29, on Dec. 9 while the Lady Lions won the Dec. 28 match-up, 50-35.
Mansfield went on to win the tiebreaker on Friday night as they knocked off Hartville, 43-29.
The win moved the Lady Lions’ record to 14-4 on the season as Mansfield has won 10-of-11, with their lone loss being by just two points to rival Ava.
It was a low scoring affair early as both teams combined to scored just 28 first-half points.
Madalyn Ivy had a 3-pointer and Logan Jones scored four points in the first as Mansfield led, 9-6.
Hartville would get one point closer in the second quarter as Jenna Kelley scored four points and Kylie Harris added a 3-pointer.
Lauren Jones scored four of her team’s six points to give the Lady Lions a 15-13 halftime edge.
Hannah Keith paced Hartville in the third quarter with two 3-pointers and eight points.
Logan Jones had eight points for Mansfield as the Lady Lions entered the final frame with a three point lead.
The Lady Lions then took over the game with a 15-4 run in the final eight minutes to pull away for a 14-point win.
Logan Jones made all six of her late free throws for Mansfield.
Haley Tripp scored four points and Chloe Lemons added a big 3-pointer. Kelly scored all four of Hartville’s points in the fourth.
For Mansfield, Logan Jones led the Lady Lions with 18 points. Lauren Jones had seven points; Ivy scored five points; Haley Tripp had four points; while three points were scored by Harleigh Hodges, Macie Tate and Ivy.
Meanwhile, Keith had 12 points for the Lady Eagles. Kelley scored 10 points, McKinley Sanders finished with just four points while Harris had three points.
Mansfield is the No. 1 seed in this week’s 31st Lady Lion Invitational Tournament.
If they win Monday night against Conway, they had a semifinals game against either No. 4 Dora or No. 5 Forsyth on Jan. 27 at 6 p.m. A win there puts them in the finals on Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m.
A loss gives them a third place match-up at 6 p.m.
The other seeds are No. 2 Houston, No. 3 Springfield Catholic, No. 6 Mountain Grove and No. 7 Aurora.
