Senior forward Randy Rickards tallied 21 points, eight rebounds and six steals to lead the Cape Henlopen boys' basketball team to an 81-33 thrashing of Polytech Dec. 12 in Lewes.
Ten Vikings scored in the wire-to-wire win, which was Cape's third in a row and its most lopsided victory in coach Steve Re's seven-year tenure. Senior forward Ian Robertson continued his torrid start to the season with 17 points and 11 boards, while senior guard Izaiah Dadzie hit three of five three-point tries on the way to 13 points.
Sophomore guard Skylar Johnson enjoyed a breakout game for the Vikings and showed that he will be a force to be reckoned with down the road. The cat-quick lead guard treated the stat sheet like a Golden Corral, scooping up a little of everything en route to 10 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Cape (3-1, 2-1 Henlopen North) raced to a 7-1 lead after 90 seconds and never looked back, going up 22-7 on a Robertson layup in the final seconds of the first quarter. The Vikings continued the onslaught through the second frame, scoring seemingly at will and pestering the Panthers into 16 first-half turnovers. Dadzie's second trifecta of the night put his squad ahead 39-14 with 2:25 left in the first half, and that advantage swelled to 45-18 at the break.
The Cape lead ballooned to as many as 57 points late in the fourth quarter before Polytech splashed in three unanswered three-pointers to end the game, narrowly averting a 50-point blowout.
The Vikings' domination extended to every column of the scorebook, as they connected on 30 of their 59 field goal tries (51 percent), drained nine of their 23 attempts from long range (39 percent), and held Polytech to anemic 23 percent shooting. Cape also won the battle of the boards 44-21 and notched a season-best 20 assists, a number that would make most college teams jealous.
Junior forward Anthony Smith recorded his first varsity basket on a second-quarter lay-in and finished with six points, while sophomore guard Kris Rushin contributed four points and a pair of assists. Juniors Luke D'Ambrogi, Jack Dennis, and Nick Sivels added three points apiece, all on second-half three-pointers. Sivels' bomb from the left corner represented his first varsity points.
Re was pleased with his team's ability to maintain its focus and energy against a clearly overwhelmed opponent.
"It's about trying to be mature about the game and handling our business the right way," Re said. "We did a good job in the second quarter and third quarter. When the guys that usually don't get a lot of playing time got a chance to get into the action, they looked pretty good. I was pleased with the ball movement and the defensive energy. You hold a team to 33 points in a varsity basketball game, you've gotta be happy with that."
Rickards saw plenty of positives, too.
"Communication was good tonight, and we continued to play hard in the second half," Rickards said. "The hardest thing with games like this is being able to play hard. Sometimes it can be frustrating to be up big and just keep chasing kids around, but we kept it up."
Polytech (0-3, 0-3 Henlopen North) suffered its third straight loss by 30-plus points and has been doubled up by a 236-118 aggregate score so far this season. The Panthers are in the midst of a historic slide, as they went 23-2 and reached the DIAA championship game just three seasons ago.
