Cape girls’ basketball saddles Riders with 75-21 loss

Cape forward Abbey Hearn scored 12 points in the second quarter and 24 in all to lead the Lady Vikings to a 75-21 victory over Caesar Rodney Jan. 31 at home. 

The Vikings started out hot, as they outscored the Riders 22-4 in the first quarter and added 27 in the second quarter, hitting at a 56 percent rate. They finished the second half outscoring the Riders 26-12.

Hearn hit 80 percent of her shots in the contest. Freshman Morgan Mahoney scored 13 for the Vikings, while point guard Dania Cannon added 11.

“It’s interesting,” said Cape coach Pat Woods. “We did all defense yesterday in practice. It’s all we focused on. That’s all we wanted to get back into. It’s something that’s very easy to control. Shots fall. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t, but defense, you can bring it up as many times as you like. After the Polytech game [Cape lost 53-50], we just wanted to lock in on defense. We gave up 50 points in the last two games [59-50 to St. Elizabeth]. We knew we were better than that. The girls wanted it really bad.”

Hearn felt that the defense stepped up and controlled the game.

“We prided ourselves on having good defense all year,” said Hearn. “If we put up 50 points, we should be able to win. I think everyone really locked up well. We got to try out a zone tonight too. We wanted to step up and have a really good game. Our chemistry has gotten better throughout the season. I think we’ve been working together, trust each other more, pass to each other and trust our shots. We are making the right decisions. Like if we have a good shot, we pass it to someone who has a great shot. We did a good job at that today.”

“Our ball movement was really good tonight,” said freshman guard Mehkia Applewhite, who scored eight points in the contest. “When we move it, we play a lot better.”

“i wasn’t confident in the last few games,” said Mahoney. “I got my confidence back tonight.”

The junior varsity team remained undefeated at 13-0 with a 31-9 win over the Riders JV.

Ella Rishko scored 12 to lead the JV Vikings. Taonshaye Trader added eight, while Kelly Bragg tallied four. Lauryn Head put up three, and Destiny Kusen and Mackenzie Vitolo each scored a basket.

The 12-3 Lady Vikings will travel to Felton Tuesday, Feb. 5, to face the Spartans of Lake Forest.