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Balanced Vikings crush Central on Senior Night

February 21, 2017

The Cape boys’ basketball team put on a picture-perfect Senior Day performance in a 74-42 throttling of Sussex Central Feb. 17 at the Big House, as senior guard Jerry Harden scored a career-high 13 points, and all four Cape seniors hit buckets.

In need of a confidence boost after a disheartening setback at Smyrna two nights earlier, Cape got the blowout it wanted. The Vikings took command early and never looked back, leading their cross-county rivals by as many as 37 points late in the third period and forcing a “mercy rule” running clock in the fourth. Ten players scored for Cape, which shot 49 percent from the floor, drained eight three-pointers, and got a dazzling night from freshman guard Cory Barnes.

The Vikings’ young floor general scored a game-high 16 points and matched his career best with eight rebounds. Barnes, who reached double figures in scoring for the 10th time in his last 11 games, recovered from a subpar outing in the Smyrna loss. He hit six of his 10 field goal attempts and controlled the flow of the game throughout, dishing out four assists and committing zero turnovers.

“This was a nice rebound game for us,” Barnes said. “We pushed the ball and got everyone involved.”

Harden enjoyed a hot night from the perimeter, hitting all three of his three-point tries as well as a contested 18-footer. The Vikings’ defensive ace said he and his teammates devoted extra gym time to their shooting strokes last week.

“It all came from practice,” Harden said. “Coach [Steve Re] had us in the gym this week and made us all shoot 100 shots … and it paid off.”

Re was pleased with his team’s ability to hit open shots, which it struggled to do in the Smyrna game. 

“It’s good Cape, bad Cape throughout the course of the year, but we can be really dangerous when things get rolling,” Re said. “We got hot early tonight, and that helped our mind-set. It’s all about us seeing a couple buckets go in. A lot of our guys, when they see that first basket go in, they’re entirely different players.”

Cape improved to 13-6 overall and 9-3 in the Henlopen North, securing its winningest regular season since it went 16-4 in the 2008-09 campaign.

Junior forward Randy Rickards notched his third double-double in four games by scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. The 6-foot-5 uber-athlete brought down the house early in the third period, when he climbed the ladder to snag a Barnes pass near the top of the backboard and hammered home the alley-oop.

Rickards, who added four assists and zero turnovers, saw the Vikings’ sixth consecutive victory over Central as a momentum-builder for the postseason.

“We’re feeling really good for the playoffs,” Rickards said. “I think we can do something special. We want to be a special team.”

Junior forward Ian Robertson joined his Cape teammates in double figures as he scored 10 points, corralled seven boards and swatted away four shots. He was happy to help Cape’s seniors shine.

“Since it was Senior Night, we just wanted to go out and have fun,” Robertson said. “We wanted to end on a good note for the seniors in their last regular-season home game. We had a good time.”

Cape jumped out to a 20-8 lead after one period and extended the advantage to 39-13 at intermission thanks to crisp ball movement and long-distance accuracy. The Vikings connected on six threes and assisted on nine of their 15 field goals in the first half. Barnes and Harden combined for 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting before the break.

Cape’s master class in efficiency continued in the third, when Rickards rattled off nine points in a four-minute span, and Robertson and Harden hit shots from beyond the arc. The Vikings led 64-27 after three periods and sent in their second unit for the entirety of the final frame.

Senior forward Robert Mitchell celebrated Senior Night with six points, including a spin move underneath the hoop for a put-back that brought the crowd to its feet. Junior guard Caleb Jones scored six points of his own on a pair of three-pointers, while senior guard Rasheed Woods tallied five points and four rebounds. Senior forward Noah Piper, and freshman guards Kris Rushin and Joe Kirby scored two points apiece.

Junior guard Ethan Lambert paced Central (5-13, 2-10 Henlopen North) with 12 points. The setback was the Knights’ third in a row and fifth in six games.

Cape closes out its regular season Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 4-15 Brandywine. The Vikings defeated the Bulldogs 47-30 last season, holding them to eight field goals.

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