Cape boys challenge Dover, fall 58-44
Up against unbeaten Dover on Feb. 12, the Cape Henlopen boys’ basketball team desperately needed a win to bolster its fading postseason hopes. For nearly three quarters, the Vikings looked like they just might get it.
Eden Davis had other ideas.
The junior guard scored a game-high 21 points, including a huge three-pointer to beat the third-quarter buzzer, and the Senators pulled away from a feisty Cape squad for a 58-44 victory.
With 17-0 Dover clinging to a 38-34 lead and the clock winding down in the third quarter, Davis dribbled out the final seconds and pulled up for a cold-blooded, contested 22-footer that gave the heavily favored Senators some much-needed breathing room. Energized by Davis’s heroics, Dover put the game out of reach with a fourth-quarter flurry.
Cape head coach Steve Re saw the setback as a necessary part of his team’s maturation process.
“This is what young teams have to go through,” Re said. “We’re learning how to maintain a consistent level of play and level of energy. If you take away our turnovers that led to live baskets, we’re up 15 to 20 at halftime. At one point, we turned it over three straight times for [Dover] layups. We’ll keep fighting, grow up, and get better.”
The Senators (18-0, 12-0 Henlopen North) got 12 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks from 6-foot-7 junior forward Jyheim Spencer and 13 points from junior guard Elijah Allen.
The Vikings came out like a team possessed in the first quarter, scoring eight unanswered points to open the game – six of them from sophomore guard Ja’Vaughn Burton – and holding Dover without a bucket for nearly five minutes. Cape extended its lead to 18-7 when junior guard Kris Rushin drilled a three-pointer late in the frame, sending a small contingent of Vikings faithful into a frenzy. The Senators responded by scoring six points in a 12-second span on an Allen three-pointer and a Davis three-point play, trimming their deficit to five after one period.
Cape maintained a slim lead until late in the second quarter, when Allen converted a put-back to give Dover its first lead at 29-27. The Senators never trailed again.
Burton led the Vikings (7-11, 5-7 Henlopen North) with 12 points, including two three-pointers. Junior wing Sh’Kai Chandler added 10 points, six rebounds and a pair of threes, while junior forward Jo Jo Kirby contributed six points and four boards. Rushin (five points), senior forward Anthony Smith (four points), junior guard Collin Mallet (three points), and junior forward Sam Luciano-Solomon (two points) also scored for Cape.
Burton applauded his team’s heart and hustle against the state’s only undefeated team.
“We came in ready to work,” Burton said. “We played hard and played together. We didn’t care what [Dover’s] record was – we just came out and worked hard.”
The Vikings, who shot just 35 percent from the floor and were outrebounded 35-19, have lost four consecutive games for the first time since December 2015.
Cape closes out its five-game road trip with a long haul to St. Georges Tech on Friday, Feb. 15.
