Spartans sink Cape boys 54-36
Sophomore sensation Kaheim Kimbrough-Roach poured in 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting and ripped down 15 rebounds to pace the Lake Forest boys’ basketball team to a 54-36 win over visiting Cape Henlopen Feb. 5 in Felton.
Junior guard Jaysem Vazquez added 20 points and four assists for the Spartans, who used a 12-0 second-quarter spurt to take command and were never seriously challenged.
Kimbrough-Roach, a 6-foot-3 forward who has already received a scholarship offer from Division I IUPUI, asserted himself from the opening tip. He scored 10 first-quarter points, all underneath the hoop, and skied for rim-level rebounds at every opportunity. By the halftime break, Kimbrough-Roach had tallied 15 points and 10 boards, while Cape had cobbled together just 15 points and five rebounds as a team.
Up 27-15 at intermission, Lake (13-3, 11-1 Henlopen South) cruised home from there to notch its third straight win.
Head coach Steve Re was disappointed in the Vikings’ defensive execution.
“We played great defense the other night against Caesar Rodney, and it was a similar game plan tonight in terms of keeping guys out of the paint,” Re said. “We couldn’t do it. [Lake Forest] got to the paint whenever they wanted, which was crazy. It was the opposite of what we do and what we’ve always done as a team.”
Cape (7-9, 5-5 Henlopen North) dropped its second consecutive game and saw its state tournament hopes dim. The Vikings will likely need to win at least two of their four remaining games – at Sussex Tech (11-6), at Dover (16-0), at St. Georges Tech (10-6) and at home against Appoquinimink (10-5) – to earn a postseason bid. Cape has never missed a state tourney in Re’s seven-plus years at the helm.
The Vikings got 17 points and two three-pointers from sophomore guard Ja’Vaughn Burton, while junior wing Sh’Kai Chandler collected 10 points and five rebounds.
Lake Forest won the numbers game on virtually all fronts, shooting 54 percent from the floor to Cape’s 32 percent and outrebounding the Vikings 36-12. The Spartans limited Cape – a dangerous team from the perimeter – to 3-for-20 three-point shooting.
The Vikings played without injured starting power forward Ethan Pires.
