White-hot Vikings dismantle Brandywine 81-46

After a regular season characterized by youthful inconsistency and occasional glimpses of brilliance, the Cape boys’ basketball team must play its best basketball now if it hopes to make noise in the upcoming DIAA state tournament.

The Vikings are off to a roaring start.

Cape put on a clinic in its regular-season finale at Brandywine Feb. 21, as Steve Re’s squad shot 61 percent from the floor and spread the scoring load around to 10 players in an 81-46 wire-to-wire thumping of the Bulldogs.

Junior forward Randy Rickards scored 18 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out three assists to pace the Vikings (14-6, 9-3 Henlopen North) to their sixth win in seven games. His frontcourt mate, junior Ian Robertson, tallied 17 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks.

Rickards said his team’s performance built momentum for the postseason.

“We’ve been able to shoot the ball really well the last couple games, so things have gotten better for us,” said Rickards, who made eight of his 12 field goal tries. “If we wanna get out of the first round, we just have to keep playing hard and valuing the basketball. We have to be focused on one thing, and that’s winning.”

Cape played far and away its most efficient game of the season, amassing 16 assists and a season-low nine turnovers on the night. The Vikings established season highs with 81 points and 35 field goals, scoring seemingly at will against an undermanned, outsized Brandywine team. Cape hadn’t eclipsed 80 points in a game since it put up 81 Jan. 14, 2014, against Indian River.

Re said the Vikings’ offensive explosion bodes well for their playoff hopes.

“I think the last couple games, seeing the ball go through the basket gives us a nicer rhythm on offense,” Re said. “The ball movement’s crisp and our defense is solid. It’s a nice tune-up before we head to the playoffs, and I like where we’re going. If we keep the team first and individual stuff second, we’ll be OK.”

The Vikings connected on 11 of their 15 shots (73 percent) in the first quarter and took a 25-11 lead on a vicious, two-handed Robertson dunk in the final seconds of the frame. Robertson scored 10 points and drained two three-pointers in the period to help Cape seize control early. The Bulldogs never closed the gap to fewer than eight points the rest of the way.

Up 42-25 at intermission, the Vikings poured it on in the second half and took their biggest lead of the night at 77-36 on a three-pointer by freshman guard Sh’Kai Chandler midway through the fourth quarter. Chandler’s trifecta capped a 16-0 Cape surge highlighted by 10 unanswered points from Cape’s second unit of Chandler, Kris Rushin, Joe Kirby, Noah Piper and Robert Mitchell.

Senior guard Jerry Harden matched his career high with 13 points and hauled in six rebounds for the Vikings, who improved to 7-3 on the road, while freshman guard Cory Barnes sliced and diced the Brandywine defense for 10 points and four boards. Chandler notched eight points and connected on two three-pointers, all during a two-minute stretch in the fourth. Cape also got five points, three assists and three steals from sharp-shooting junior guard Caleb Jones and four points from Piper. Mitchell, Kirby and Rushin netted a bucket each to close the Vikings’ scorebook.  

Piper put an exclamation point on the win with a two-handed slam in the final seconds, the first in-game throw-down of his career, and he couldn’t have been more thrilled.

“When I had the opportunity and got the dunk, I was like, ‘Let’s go!’” Piper said. “That was perfect.”

Cape dominated all facets of play, as they held Brandywine to 17-for-57 shooting (30 percent) and enjoyed a 38-26 advantage on the boards.

Junior guard Jacob Hunt scored 16 points and hit three three-pointers for Brandywine, which fell to 4-16 on the year. Freshman guard Mahir Sharif added 11 points.

The Vikings now await word on their seed for the state tournament, which kicks off Wednesday, March 1, with first-round games. The DIAA points system is bewildering at best and includes bonuses for out-of-state games, so any projection at this point is useless.