Cape boys’ basketball finishes season 10-10
At 10-9, the Cape boys’ basketball team needed a win over a 12-7 Appoquinimink team Feb. 21 on Senior Night to finish above .500. On a night that began with the highs of a Senior Night ceremony, the Vikings unfortunately had to deal with an end that was quite low, falling to the Jags 60-53.
“This was a very special night for me,” said senior Manny Ortiz Villaman. “Obviously, it didn’t end the way I wanted it to, but just being around this group of people was good for me.”
Coach Steve Re began the game with five seniors on the floor – Collin Sivels, Kam Trammell, Manny Ortiz Villaman, Jack Schell and Liam Mack. Sivels and Ortiz Villaman connected early, sparking roars from the student section.
“These seniors have been really good teammates for our program,” Re said. “They’ve had good attitudes, been consistent with their effort level in practice, and do the right things from a coach’s perspective.”
Geordan Downing, Jameson Tingle and Jayden Dukes were brought in for Sivels, Ortiz Villaman and Mack, giving the crowd a chance to applaud the three seniors. Fans continued to cheer when the new trio of Vikings proceeded to shoot 5-for-12 from beyond the arc in the first half.
Leading by one to start the third, Appo quickly went on a run to expand its lead to seven. In a theme that lasted the final two quarters, the Vikings got within four thanks to a clutch three by Trammell only to see the Jaguars pull away.
“Every time we got too close, we'd give up an offensive rebound for an easy lay-up,” Re said.
Trammell scored all 12 of his points in the second half, connecting on four threes.
“It all comes in rhythm,” he said. “You can’t go out there and expect to hit every shot you put up. It comes in the rhythm of your teammates finding you and you finding your teammates. When everybody works together, everybody’s shots fall in.”
Shooting 38% from beyond the arc, better than their percentage from inside, the Vikings made seven more threes than Appo. Both teams took 58 shots, but Appo nearly doubled the Vikings’ made two-point field goals. Cape managed to get to the charity stripe only twice, while the Jaguars went 10-for-15 from the free-throw line.
Settling on a seven-point advantage for much of the fourth quarter, the Jaguars nearly won by 10 at the end. Trammell walked off his regular-season career at Cape with a buzzer-beating three to trim Appo’s victory margin to seven, 60-53. Ortiz Villaman thinks they just ran out of time.
“We should have made a couple more adjustments a little quicker, and I think we would have won the game,” he said. “But, there’s nothing you can do about it. We just need to see, because right now we’re on the bubble, and if we can get into the playoffs, we’re running off with that.”
