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The Cape Henlopen High School girls' basketball team had its way at both ends of the floor for the first 16 minutes Wednesday night, March 3, 1999, and as a result earned a rematch with upstate power St. Mark's in the second round of the Delaware state tournament.

Sparked by a relentless full-court press and some hot shooting early in the game, the 13th-seeded Vikings routed 20th-seed Laurel 48-25 in a first round game at Sussex Tech High School. The win was Cape's sixth straight and improved its record to 15-8 overall.

"The last half of the season, these girls have really been playing," Cape coach Josette McCullough said. "We finished second in the (Henlopen) North and you can't ask for more than that. When we needed it, they stepped up."

Cape's last defeat this season was a 66-33 drubbing at St. Mark's on Feb. 6. The Vikings will got a shot at revenge against the fourth-seeded Spartans (14-8) in the second round Friday, March 5, at Polytech, but dropped a 46-45 heartbreaker.

The key to Wednesday's victory was a red-hot first half that saw the Vikings build a 20-point second-quarter lead. Laurel struggled all evening bringing the ball up against Cape's press and were outrebounded 34-27 in the game, 18-9 in the first two quarters. The domination was so thorough that at times the Vikings seemed to be toying with the Bulldogs.

"We've been working on that (press) a lot. We've not been shooting too well ... you can't go wrong with defense," McCullough said.

But the shots were falling early in the game and even a rare off night by leading scorer and rebounder Jessica Witherspoon couldn't slow the Vikings down.

Junior Julie Parseghian scored 11 of her game-high 13 points in the first half as Cape built a 29-9 halftime lead. She also finished with 14 rebounds.

"They were just falling, usually they're all bricks," Parseghian joked. "I always try to play as hard as I can, I guess today I got lucky."

Cape led 8-5 early in the game before going on a 21-2 run that spanned the first and second quarters. Parseghian drained a 15-footer, a jumper in the lane and two free throws during the run while freshman Lindsey Williams sank a layup and long shot from just inside the arc. Meghan Oakes also had a pair of long jumpers.

Leading 20-7 after one period, the Vikings nearly shut out the Bulldogs in the second quarter. Laurel's only points came on a Courtney Hughes put-back with 34 seconds left in the half. At the time of the basket, the Bulldogs trailed 29-7.

"We've just kind of been getting better and better at it every time we play," Parseghian said of Cape's pressure defense. "At the end of the season here we've been playing a lot better and that press has just been helping us a lot."

Despite some ragged play by Cape in the second half, Laurel (12-10) got no closer than 16 points the rest of the way.

Witherspoon was held to just seven points in the game but Williams helped pick up the slack with 12 points, most coming on long perimeter jumpers. Hughes led Laurel with eight points.

"This is like a confidence-builder hopefully," Parseghian said. "It was a good win. We beat them with no mistakes."