Cape treats record crowd to 58-53 win over top-ranked Conrad
The Cape Henlopen girls’ basketball team came into its Jan. 31 clash with top-ranked Conrad in search of respect. They found it by following the sage advice scrawled across the backs of their warm-ups.
The Vikings “let it fly.”
Cape drilled eight three-pointers and got a game-high 19 points from senior forward Abbey Hearn, upending the Red Wolves 58-53 to earn a long-awaited signature win over an upstate power and shed what head coach Pat Woods called the “everyone else” label.
“Thinking about teams that people consider the best [in Delaware], it’s kinda been three teams [Conrad, Sanford and St. Elizabeth] and then everyone else,” Woods said. “I told the girls, ‘We’re everyone else. While we don’t necessarily feel that way, you gotta go do it. To change people’s minds, you have to go win games against the best.’”
Cape used suffocating man-to-man defense to bottle up an electric Conrad offense that had averaged close to 70 points per game. The Vikings closed up driving lanes, swatting away entry passes and forcing the Wolves to settle for long, contested shots. Cape limited Conrad to 32 percent shooting and held Julie and Stefanie Kulesza, both first-team all-staters last year, to a combined 28 points.
The teams traded leads for the first 12 minutes of play before the Vikings took control on the strength of their long-range shooting. Cape canned four three-pointers in a two-minute span – two from sophomore wing Morgan Mahoney, one from sophomore forward Mehkia Applewhite and another from senior guard Dania Cannon – to go up 28-23 late in the second quarter. The Red Wolves closed the gap to one early in the third, but the Vikings responded with a 12-3 run that saw Hearn score 10 consecutive Cape points. The 6-foot-1 Kutztown commit caught a beautiful full-court pass from Applewhite and finished the lay-in before swishing home a pair of threes, the second of which put the Vikings ahead 40-30 with 44 seconds left in the frame.
Cape continued the onslaught in the fourth, taking its largest lead of the night at 54-39 on two Cannon free throws with two minutes remaining. The Vikings lived at the charity stripe late, as Conrad made a desperate attempt to close the gap. Cape made the most of its chances, converting 16 of 20 shots at the line in the final period. Cannon went 11 for 14 down the stretch.
Cannon was everywhere for Cape (13-3, 10-0 Henlopen North), scoring 18 points to go with eight assists, five rebounds and a block. Mahoney scored 11 of her 13 points in the first half, collected three steals and hit three of her five three-point tries.
Applewhite scored five points, grabbed 10 rebounds and anchored the Vikings’ defensive effort. Meanwhile, senior forward Carlin Quinn was a monster in the middle, grabbing a career-high 18 rebounds to go along with her three points. Sophomore guard Ella Rishko played her typical high-energy game off the bench, super-gluing herself to the Red Wolves’ guards and diving on the floor after loose balls.
Cape delivered a heroic effort on the boards, out-rebounding the taller Red Wolves 40-31. The Vikings also held 6-foot-4 Conrad center Ja’Nylah Whittlesey to nine points.
Woods gushed over his team’s play on the defensive end.
“The girls were terrific,” Woods said. “I feel like we executed every possession. The difference between what we’re doing now and what we did last year or early this season is that the girls are locked in and focused and executing every play. There’s no meaningless movement. Defensively, nobody’s just standing around. Everyone knows where they’re supposed to be and executes. It’s that close out, this help, that talk – every little detail, they did. They defended so well, and they rebounded. They got first rebounds, which is a key for us – not giving up the offensive boards. The execution was just great all around.”
Hearn chalked up the win to unity.
“We stayed together,” Hearn said. “We made it a team game. It wasn’t just me. It wasn’t just Dania. Morgan [was great]. Mekhia [was great]. I mean, Carlin came up with 18 rebounds. That’s just amazing.”
Quinn said the Vikings found inspiration in their doubters.
“I’m so pumped,” she said. “This is one of the best moments of my entire life. We were just on fire. We were pumped up from things on the news and online saying that the only [good] teams were in the north. We were just like, ‘We’re not gonna have this. We’re gonna shut them down and show them that we’re Cape and we’re here and we’re a force to be reckoned with.’”
Cannon agreed with her teammate.
“Some people didn’t believe in us, but now they know that we’re not playing around,” Cannon said. “Before the game, we were just so excited. The energy will sometimes be dead if we’re playing a team we know we’ll blow out, but everything was just on point from the beginning to the end.”
Mahoney said the Vikings circled this game on the schedule months ago.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment,” she said. “We were ready for this and did what we had to do. We were all playing together, talking, communicating. Our defense was on. Everything was just going right, and we shut them down.”
Senior guard Alyssa Faville paced Conrad (12-4, 4-0 Diamond State) with 16 points and four three-pointers.
Cape will look to extend its winning streak to 11 games when it hosts Dover Tuesday, Feb. 4.
