the Cafe
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Cape Survives Scare From
Winless Rival Indian River
By DAVID MAULL, Cafe Locale
Even the most hardened cynic had to feel a twinge of sympathy after watching a young, overmatched team fight so desperately to win a basketball game, only to come up short in the end.
For 32 minutes Tuesday night, Jan. 19, 1999, winless Indian River scratched and clawed to stay within striking distance of rival Cape Henlopen and at times appeared poised to pull off perhaps the biggest conference upset of the season.
But Cape's experience eventually won out and the Indians were strapped with a heartbreaking 56-52 high school boys' basketball loss in Frankford.
The defeat dropped IR to 0-12 overall.
"The kids played great, we kept them out of sync," an exhausted IR coach Pat Kelly said afterward. "The thing is, we're just trying to bring these kids along and talk to them about doing things the right way and if they approach the game the right way they've got a chance to win games. They did that tonight and had a chance to win this game."
Cape (6-5 overall, 5-4 conference) twice appeared ready to turn the contest into the blowout nearly everyone expected but each time let IR creep back into contention. The Indians rallied from an 11-point second-quarter deficit and 12-point third-quarter margin to provide a thrilling finish reminiscent of the days when both teams were powerhouses in their respective divisions.
IR junior Anthony Jones turned in perhaps his best performance of the season, scoring 32 points and sinking four 3-pointers. Suffering from a chest cold, Jones nearly collapsed from exhaustion afterward.
Although IR is still searching for its first win, the team's effort was a major step forward. The coaching staff began to see improvement in the second half of last Friday's 53-35 loss at Polytech.
"The kids were gelling and in this game the kids just carried it on," IR co-coach Jerry Peden said. "We were right there, it's just a matter of getting over the hump. We're going to get there."
Cape coach Ed Waples noted his team needs to improve on fundamentals if it is to be successful this season.
"The games we've lost this year have been from this kind of play," he said. "I think they did a good job defensively, but we, offensively, just made some terrible mistakes. The issue is that we have to teach these young men that they've got to play basic basketball. That's what wins games, not the fancy stuff."
Ricky Thompson led the Vikings with 24 points despite playing with a painful foot injury that limited his mobility in the second half. O.J. Wilson came off the bench to score 12 points.
"It could have been better," Thompson said of the team's performance. "We played pretty bad but they played pretty good though. It works both ways."
Cape led 43-31 late in the third quarter before Jones sank a 3-pointer, a put-back and two free throws as part of a 9-0 run that got the Indians within 43-40 heading into the final eight minutes. The Viking were plagued by turnovers and missed a number of easy layups in the final two minutes of the quarter.
"It was just a matter of putting the pressure on and they started to obviously make mistakes," Peden said. "I think our kids picked it up. They dug deep."
Added Waples: "I thought we started making some bad mistakes. They had a nice little defense there and I think we kept them in the game."
The teams traded baskets in the early stages of the fourth quarter before a baseline 3-pointer by Jones cut the Cape lead to 49-47 with 4:27 remaining. Two layups by Thompson and a free throw by Wilson over the next three minutes gave the Vikings some breathing room at 54-49 but IR's Deandre Matthew drained a trey from up top to make it 54-52 with 50 seconds to play.
Cape then spread the floor and managed to run some time off the clock, even using the possession arrow to its advantage during a jump-ball situation. After a timeout with 14 seconds remaining, Thompson took an inbounds pass from O.J. Wilson and raced in for an easy layup.
"The guy that was guarding me played me on the opposite side, so I just broke for the basket," Thompson said.
IR's last-second 3-point shot was off the mark and Cape escaped with the victory.
Thompson scored 14 points in the first half as Cape built a 24-14 second quarter lead. But the Indians managed to stay close on the strength of two 3-pointers by Matthews and one by Jones. Although the Vikings extended their lead to 30-19, Jones scored IR's last seven points of the half to pull IR within 30-23 at the break.
Wilson converted a 3-point play and hit a jumper in the lane and Thompson sank a layup and short jumper early in the third quarter as Cape used its defense and transition game to open a 43-31 lead. The Vikings, however, would fall into another streak of sloppy play and spend the rest of the game trying to overcome their own mistakes.
"This is a good group of guys. But the only problem is that mistakes mentally bother them .. and we've got to work on that," Waples said.
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