Home Page

User Pages

Businesses

Chat

Classifieds

Entertainment

Forums

Restaurants

Sports

Weather

---

After receiving a 33-point drubbing by St. John Neumann a day earlier, Sussex Central High School's boys' basketball team got to dish out some punishment of its own at the Slam Dunk to the Beach Holiday Intivitational in Lewes.

Using an impenetrable zone defense, red hot shooting from the field and a dominating effort on the boards, the Golden Knights crushed Cardinal Gibbons 53-23 in the Mayor's Cup consolation game on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 1998, and clinched third-place in the four-team bracket.

"I think the difference between today and yesterday was desire," said Central coach Tim Slade, whose team was routed by Neumann 71-38 Monday morning. "I don't know what sparked us."

Central (3-5) shot an impressive 53 percent from the floor and held a 33-17 edge in rebounding. Its defense, meanwhile, held Cardinal Gibbons to 24 percent shooting and forced 18 turnovers.

It was an impressive turnaround for a team that had been thoroughly dominated just 24 hours earlier.

"The one thing I told them is, 'You don't want this hanging over your head from now until next Tuesday'," Slade said. "You want to feel positive. I think my team likes to be challenged. Overall, I was pretty happy. We did a lot of things that hopefully we can take throughout the Henlopen Conference."

Forward Travis Leonard also bounced back after a miserable performance against Neumann in which he scored just 7 points. On Tuesday, the junior led the Knights with 12 points and 7 rebounds.

"We just didn't have it all together yesterday," Leonard said. "We lost by so many points, we just wanted to come back. We just had more focus."

And Leonard led the way, scoring 8 points in the game's first 10 minutes and helping Central lead the game from start to finish.

"I talked to Travis and he said he wanted it," Slade said. "The thing about Travis is you have to go to him three times quick to get him in his game."

Said Leonard: "I just wanted to make a big impression to make up for yesterday."

Drew Mills added 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting while Tony Cintron had 8 points and 4 steals. Matt Jones added 9 points.

Central held a 10-5 lead at the end of the first quarter, then reeled off 9 straight points to open the second period. Jones started the rally with a 3-pointer while Cintron scored on a jumper in the lane and a baseline drive.

Cardinal Gibbons (4-9) managed just 3 points in the period on a trey from Colin McBride, then allowed Central to run away and hide in the third quarter.

Leading 21-8 at halftime, the Knights outscored the Crusaders 17-3 in the third quarter to open a commanding 38-11 lead. Mills hit a 3-pointer and a layup in the period while Leonard and Jones added a pair of baskets each.

Central extended its lead to as many as 35 points (49-14) in the fourth quarter.

Cardinal Gibbons shot just 8 of 33 from the floor in the game and allowed Central to grab 20 offensive rebounds. No Crusaders' player scored more than 6 points.