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Sussex Tech Scores Impressive
Boys' Hoops Win Over Cape

By DAVID MAULL, Cafe Locale

By recording its first victory over Cape Henlopen High School in nearly three years and doing so in convincing fashion Friday night, Dec. 18, 1998, the Sussex Tech boys' basketball team may have joined the ranks of the Henlopen Conference elite.

Sparked by a stifling defensive effort, the Ravens built a 22-point second-quarter lead and held off a determined Cape squad the rest of the way. The impressive 66-58 victory before a huge crowd in Georgetown improved Tech's record to 3-1 overall heading into a stretch of three tough nonconference games.

Tech's full-court press forced Cape into an endless stream of turnovers and bad shots in the first half. By intermission, the Ravens had built an almost insurmountable lead.

"We were just going to try to play our type game, which we didn't do in that second quarter against Seaford (a 70-67 loss Dec. 11). Since then, we've been back to playing the way we're supposed to," Tech coach Jerry Kobasa said. "We were just hoping that pressure would wear them down. That's our game. We need to play pressure defense from beginning to end."

That pressure so disrupted Cape's offensive rhythm that the Vikings went a nine-minute stretch of the first half without a field goal.

"We just pressed them to death. That's all it was. We just pressed and pressed and pressed," Tech swingman Brian Polk said. "That's our style of play."

Tech used a phenomenal 27-6 first-half run to break the game wide open and it was Polk who got the explosion started, scoring the first eight points on a dunk, a put back, a baseline drive and two free throws. When Polk went to the bench with foul trouble, Brandon Palmer and Tynell Tingle stepped up to hit clutch 3-pointers.

When dust settled, Tech had a 32-10 lead with four minutes left in the second quarter.

"I'm pretty happy with the team. We all played good defense," said Polk, who finished with a team-high 18 points. "The defense is the key."

In addition to their slew of turnovers, the Vikings shot a paltry 8 of 18 from the foul line in the first two quarters and went into intermission trailing by 19 (38-19).

"The first quarter we played what I described as terrible," Cape coach Ed Waples said. "Their defense rattled the guys and they did a good job. We just simply couldn't get into any kind of zone. That's not Cape basketball. We don't play like that."

Cape (2-1) quickly pulled itself together in the second half, using a 15-6 run to pull within 44-34 with 3:37 left in the third quarter. Although the Ravens would build their lead back up to 21 points by early in the final period, Cape refused to go away.

Darrell Davis scored 11 of his game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter and Ricky Thompson hit a pair of 3-pointers that cut the Tech lead to seven in the final minute but the Vikings ran out of time.

"If things had gone our way a little earlier, we would have given them a game. And I think the beauty of this thing is we get to play them again (Feb. 12) at our house. That's something to look forward to," Waples said. "In the second half when we came into the locker room, we asked them to play like men and they did answer the call. We just ran short of time."

Added Kobasa: "I figured there were going to be two runs (by Cape) in the game and that's exactly what it was. We made some young mistakes again. At times we needed to control the ball, we didn't. But then on defense we came back again and made some big plays. It was good win for the kids, they've really earned it."

The victory was the Ravens' first over Cape since Feb. 18, 1996 and broke a four-game losing streak to their Henlopen North rival.

In addition to Polk's 18, Palmer added 16 and Tingle 14. Three nights earlier, in a victory at Polytech, all five Tech starters scored in double figures.

"We're not stupid, Brian's the main man. But you still want everyone else involved, otherwise you start standing around looking for him to do something," Kobasa said.

Davis led Cape with 23 points while Thompson added 15 and Adam Scott 10. Davis and Thompson each hit three 3-pointers.

Tech faces Hodgson at home Tuesday night before playing in the Salisbury Lions Club Holiday Classic against Wicomico Dec. 26 and Crisfield Dec. 28. Cape hosts Sussex Central Tuesday, then participates in the Slam Dunk to the Beach tournament Dec. 26-30.