Smyrna Eagles soar past Cape 66-60
The Cape Henlopen boys’ basketball team faced off with the Smyrna Eagles Jan. 11, with Smyrna prevailing 66-60 behind 25 points and 10 rebounds from junior guard Nahshon Sylvester.
Sophomore guard Ja’Vaughn Burton tied his career high with 15 points for the Vikings, hitting three three-pointers, while junior guard Kris Rushin added 13 points and five steals.
Cape dug out of an early 11-point hole with a 21-point second quarter, taking its first lead at 24-23 with two minutes to go in the first half. A three-point play from junior forward Sam Luciano-Solomon put the Vikings ahead 30-26 with 1:10 left before intermission, but Smyrna responded with an 11-1 run to re-establish control. Junior guard Izaiah Credle capped the spurt with a three-pointer to put the Eagles in front 37-31.
Cape (4-6, 3-4 Henlopen North) pulled even with Smyrna several times in the third period and closed the gap to 57-55 on an acrobatic three-point play by Burton with 59 seconds left in the fourth, but the Eagles drained 9 of 10 free throws over the final minute, including 7 of 8 from Sylvester, to preserve the win.
Sylvester carried Smyrna (5-6, 4-2 Henlopen North) to victory by scoring 12 of his 25 points in the final 5:05, while Credle added 19 points and five boards. The duo combined to hit all five of their team’s three-pointers on the night.
Junior forward Jo Jo Kirby notched a career-high 10 points to go with four assists for Cape, while junior guard Collin Mallet chipped in with eight points and a pair of three-pointers. The Vikings also got seven points and six rebounds from sophomore forward Ethan Pires, a career-high five points from Luciano-Solomon, and two points from senior forward Anthony Smith.
Cape head coach Steve Re weighed in on the loss.
“We were very aggressive tonight,” Re said. “Maybe we did commit more fouls than we should have, but we were playing hard and we were playing aggressive. I thought we did a really good job on the backboards tonight. I thought we rebounded as well as we have all year.”
Re bemoaned some late mistakes by his Vikings, but he was happy with their effort.
“We had some untimely turnovers in key situations,” Re said. “I thought we played really hard for four quarters.”
Burton saw some bright spots in the defeat.
“I think we have grown as a team,” Burton said. “Coach has been helping us out a lot and telling us what we need to do, and we just came out there and did it.”
The long ball continues to be Cape’s strength, as the Vikings got 18 of their 60 points on three-pointers.
The Vikings’ next game will be Tuesday, Jan. 15, when they host Delcastle at 6:15 p.m.
