“We talked in the locker room after our last game,” says Manikowski, “and I told the boys we had a very, very good season. We won our opening tournament at Shikellamy, won back the Peg Berguson trophy against Wellsboro, won the Josh Palmer tournament for the third time in a row, made it to the NTL Showdown final and won a district game .. which was something we didn't do last year. It would’ve been an excellent season if we could have won another district game and made it to the state tournament, but we came up a bit short with two close losses to two very good teams.”

Other than a hiccup against 4A Montoursville (11-11) and the two losses to District and large school champ Troy (24-3), the Tigers rolled through the regular season, finishing 19-3. A second win over Class A District champ North Penn-Liberty (18-9) in the NTL Showdown led to a third loss to the Trojans and the No. 3 seed in the 3A playoffs.

After thumping No. 6 seed South Williamsport (15-7), Mansfield faced No. 2 seed Warrior Run (17-5) in the semis, falling 58-50. The Defenders ultimately lost to Troy in the final and won a first round State playoff game. The Tigers fell short in their own bid for States, falling 43-41 in overtime to No. 5 seed Southern Columbia in the 3rd-place game, bringing North Penn-Mansfield’s season to an end.

Leading the way for Mansfield all season was an experienced starting lineup that included seniors Cooper Shaw (15.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 3.3 apg, 2.1 spg, 21 bocks, 37 3’s), Alex Davis (9.4 ppg, 4.4 apg, 3.2 spg, 3.4 rpg, 20 3’s), Brady Stetter (8.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 21 blocks) and Tayton Strange (7.6 ppg, 2.1 spg, 1.8 apg, 44 3’s) and junior Andy Hermansen (6.9 ppg, 3 apg, 3.3 rpg, 1.6 spg, 22 3’s), while junior Jason Harer (7.7 ppg, 5.2 rpg) served as the Tigers’ 6th-man.

“I don't think too many people thought we were going to be better than last year's team,” says Manikowski, “but the boys .. especially the seniors .. really came together and played some fun and exciting basketball this year. Finishing with 21 wins was really a great accomplishment and all the credit goes to each and every one of the players on that team that worked hard each and every practice and game to be successful.”

While Shaw was the Tigers’ No. 1 scoring threat .. leading Mansfield in scoring in 15 of their games .. all four other starters and Harer each led Mansfield in scoring at least once. 

“Some of those players have been playing since they were in ninth grade and have been through quite a number of battles,” says Manikowski, “so there wasn't too much that surprised them this year. Every one of them stepped up their games from the year before and it was fun to watch them play together .. they were very unselfish and played team basketball all year long.”

Along with the four starters, Mansfield will lose four other seniors to graduation .. Kaiden Choplosky, Talon D’Angelo, Nicholas Applebee and Austin Andrews. In all, Manikowski will look to replace 73% of the Tigers’ scoring from this season, including 79% of their made 3-pointers and nearly 80% of their rebounding. 

“Losing eight seniors is obviously going to be hard to replace next year,” says Manikowski, “but we have four returning players in Andy Hermansen, Jason Harer, Patrick Youmans (1.2 ppg, 1.3 rpg) and Kevin Clemente-Vazquez (1.8 ppg, 5 3’s) who each saw a lot of varsity minutes. We’ll be looking to them to provide leadership with the upcoming sophomore class to have a successful season next year.”

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