Cape girls’ basketball jacked at Sussex Central 43-40

The shine is off the apple for the highly touted Cape girls’ basketball team of first-year head coach Pat Woods after getting jacked at Sussex Central 43-40 on Dec. 4.

The high-speed and aggressive game plan of veteran coach Ron Dukes was led by senior guard Raeonna Stratton, who scored 18 points, including four three-pointers and a few bank shots.

“We are basically a guard-oriented team that plays fast,” Dukes said. “The fans are still glowing from last Saturday’s football championship. We had great support here tonight. The atmosphere was like a playoff game.”

The Vikings got behind early 20-9, but steadied after Central cooled down, trailing 37-33 entering the fourth quarter.

“We have a young team still figuring out combinations and chemistry,” Woods said of his Cape team. “And with all the turnovers we committed and the great outside shooting by Central, we came back to lead 40-39 with under two minutes to play, and we had the basketball.”

But the Vikings turned the ball over twice during money time, and the Golden Knights scored the last four points of the game to win 43-40.

After Cape won the third quarter 17-14, the fourth quarter was 7-6 in favor of Cape.

“We couldn’t buy a basket in the fourth quarter,” Dukes said. “The Northern Division is going to be wild ride this season.”

Abbey Hearn was the lone Viking in double figures, scoring 11 points.

The Knights (2-0) play at Smyrna on Friday, Dec. 7. Cape (1-1) next plays at Polytech at 5:15 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 11, on the front end of a girls’ and boys’ doubleheader. The boys’ game is scheduled for 6:45 p.m.