Junior Andy Hermansen led a balanced Mansfield scoring attack with a game-high 14 points while senior Alex Davis had 13, junior sixth-man Jason Harer added 10 points, senior leading scorer Cooper Shaw had 9 points and added 9 rebounds and senior Brady Stetter had 8 points. Junior Patrick Youmans had 5 points off the bench for the Tigers and senior starter Tayton Strange rounded out the scoring with 2 points.

The Tigers jumped out to an early, 6-0 lead on the Mounties, went up 11-2 on a Hermansen 3-pointer with less than three minutes remaining in the first quarter and finished the opening frame with a 13-7 lead. 

The visiting Mounties opened the second quarter with a basket and after a Harer score, South hit a three to stay within a possession at 15-12. Harer answered with an old fashioned three point play of his own and then found fellow-sub Patrick Youmans inside for a bucket to make it 20-12 Mansfield with 6:27 left in the first half. 

After South Williamsport answered with another three, the Tigers put together a 15-0 run, culminating on a Stetter reverse lay-up with 24 seconds left to put Mansfield up 35-15. The Mounties sank a three with 7 seconds left, but Hermansen erased what little momentum that would have given SW and drained a deep three at the halftime buzzer to keep Mansfield up 20 at the break, 38-18.

As they have all season, Mansfield used defense and extra passes to pull away from South Williamsport. The Tigers average nearly 12 steals per game and Friday night got 6 each from Hermansen, Davis and Strange. Almost all of their thefts led to points also and their 19 assists in the win surpassed the 15 per game they average as Hermansen, Davis and Shaw led the way with 5 helpers each.

South Williamsport scored the first 4 points out of the locker room but Mansfield would finish the third quarter on a 17-6 run, getting 6 points from Hermansen, 4 from Davis, 3 from Harer and 2 each from Stetter and Shaw to take a 55-28 lead into the final frame.

North Penn-Mansfield went up 30 early in the final quarter to kick in the running clock, and despite South’s starters going into a full-court press, the Tigers substituted freely and sealed the blowout win.

The Tigers, now 21-4 on the season, advance to the 3A semifinals where they’ll face No. 2 seed Warrior Run, who beat No. 7 Towanda 55-19 Thursday night. 

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