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It wasn't flashy, but it was effective enough to bring Sussex Central's roller-coaster ride of a season to a disappointing end.

The Cape Henlopen High School boys' basketball team had its offense firing on all cylinders Thursday night, March 4, 1999, and got a huge game from senior O.J. Wilson in defeating Central 75-59 in a first round Delaware state tournament game at Sussex Tech.

Fifteenth-seed Cape (13-10) advanced to face second-seed William Penn (21-1) in the second round Saturday, March 6, at Glasgow, and was eliminated from the tournament, 83-65.

Against Central, the Vikings controlled the tempo throughout, taking the lead for good late in the first quarter and then pulling away over the final 24 minutes.

"We hadn't played a game in a little while and I think some of them have gotten a little rusty," Cape coach Ed Waples said. "We worked on some new things and I think when you take a risk and do that, you're going have some interesting things happen. At times it was working with us and at other times it was difficult on us. We just accumulated a lot of fouls."

Wilson was red hot from the opening tip, finishing with a game-high 23 points and leading three Cape scorers in double figures. He scored 18 points in the first half as the Vikings carried a 10-point lead into intermission.

"I just started shooting my jumpers. I've been working on them for the last couple weeks and they just starting falling for me," said Wilson, who sank a pair of 3-pointers. "And the team, they just helped me step up my game to another level."

"O.J. is a good player and we're just trying to get him into his game," Waples said. "Tonight, he went from the outside and he did a good job. I think he was spark plug for us."

Julius Hazzard added 19 points and Darrell Davis 17.

Cape controlled the boards much of the game, holding a 25-20 edge in rebounding, and used a series of first-half Central turnovers to spark the transition game. The Vikings were able to score consistently from both outside and under the basket.

"This group of kids, they're at their best when they're stealing the ball and running," said Waples, whose team split its two regular-season meetings with Central. "I wanted the win and I also wanted our kids to learn a few things. I thought playing a team that you've played two times previously, this would help."

For Central, the game followed a familiar pattern: fall behind by double digits in the third quarter, make a run to creep back into contention, lose steam and come up short at the end. The Golden Knights also missed center Travis Leonard, who sat out with an ankle injury suffered in practice.

"I think we ran out of gas. We didn't have the legs anymore," Central coach Tim Slade said. "We just didn't rebound that well. We played hard and did our best."

Central's season ended with a five-game losing streak, which came on the heels of a seven-game winning streak that had its record at 11-7 in early February. The Knights finished 11-12 overall.

Despite the disappointing stretch drive, Slade was happy with his team's effort.

"I'm very proud. These are a bunch of guys who haven't really played that much basketball," he said. "I just basically put them together and assembled a team. I'll choose those guys over any talent any day. You can't teach heart."

Cape carried a 32-22 lead into halftime and opened the third period with seven straight points to extend the margin to 17 points. Davis sank a 3-pointer and a 17-footer and Wilson a layup to make it 39-22 with 6:38 left in the period.

Central would spend the next seven minutes chipping away at the lead, thanks to seven points from James Cannon and six from George Dutton. The Knights got as close as 52-46 early in the fourth quarter and were still withing striking distance at 55-47 with about six minutes to play when Davis and Wilson got hot again.

Davis sank a pair of 3-pointers and a short jumper in the paint and Wilson added a layup and a free throw as Cape went on a 13-4 run that made it 68-51 and brought the curtain down on Central's season.

Cannon led Central with 17 points while Dutton added 13.