This story originally ran in The Standard-Times on Feb. 25, 2004.

By Nick Tavares
Standard-Times correspondent

MANSFIELD -- Wareham's girls didn't have an answer for Mansfield's outside shooting last night and it proved to be those raining threes that bounced the Vikings out of the Division — South Sectional tournament with a 64-51 loss.

Brianne Bowes was the main threat from beyond the arc for the sixteenth-seeded Hornets hitting five 3-point field goals including three consecutive early in the second half.

Mansfield (12-11) built their lead early jumping out to a 32-17 lead at the half off of turnovers and forcing Wareham to take weak shots.

"We killed ourselves with the turnovers" said Wareham head coach Bob Rojik. "Their press wasn't that great we just were not able to get into it.

"We needed to get the ball to (Lindsey) Watkins more often. (Their defense) wasn't really that bad we played with her being double-teamed all year but we couldn't get the ball to her when we needed to."

Watkins finished the game with 19 points for Wareham (9-10) but was constantly boxed out of the paint by the Mansfield defense.

The Vikings took an early lead but turnovers at midcourt and an efficient Mansfield offense led to an 18-4 Hornet run that built a 13-point lead midway through the first half.

After Watkins started the second half with two points from the free-throw line Mansfield picked right up where it left off going on a 23-5 run blowing the lead up to 24 points. The run was highlighted by Bowes' performance from behind the three-point line.

"We'd push them outside and they'd come right back and hit that three" Rojik said. "Those outside shots killed us."

Wareham came back to within 16 points inside of six minutes to play highlighted by the shooting of Kayla Nocon and Taryn Pires.

Nocon finished with 10 points and Pires wound up with 11 including three baskets from three-point range.

The loss means that Mansfield will travel to play top-seeded O'Bryant on Thursday while Wareham will have to wait until next year.

"We tried to keep them calm" said Rojik of his squad made up mostly of juniors "and they were very composed but it's hard to go out there and not feel pressure and I think the nerves played a little bit of a role in the beginning."

This story appeared on Page C4 of The Standard-Times on February 25 2004.