The Cape Henlopen girls’ basketball team dropped its third game in four contests with a 43-35 loss to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel out of Baltimore, Md., in the Dec. 26 opener of the Hoophall East at Slam Dunk to the Beach holiday showcase tournament.

The Vikings came into the game hoping to rebound from a hard-fought loss to Dover, Cape’s first regular-season Henlopen Conference defeat in nearly five years. They took an early lead and stayed within a possession or two of the quick, physical Cougars until the final few minutes, but Mt. Carmel pulled away late on the strength of timely offensive rebounds and tough runners.

Sophomore forward Amalia Fruchtman scored 13 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and collected four steals to pace Cape, while junior guard Kayden Borge Williams tallied a career-high nine points and knocked down a pair of three-pointers.

Cape led 17-15 late in the second quarter when senior guard Mya Maull converted on a fast break, but junior forward Amya Goodsell and junior guard Caryne Nelson answered with buckets down low to give the Cougars a two-point lead at the intermission. Sophomore forward Janessa Horowitz built on Mt. Carmel’s momentum with a three-pointer seconds into the third frame, and a Goodsell transition lay-in extended the margin to 24-17. 

The Cougars held their seven-point cushion through the period, but senior guard Lulu Rishko converted two drives in a 30-second span to cut the deficit to 30-28 with 6:17 left in the fourth. After four quick points from Mt. Carmel, Borge Williams buried her second three-pointer to pull the score to 34-31. Freshman guard Deja Harry answered immediately for the Cougars, lofting a runner in traffic, and Goodsell added a put back to give Mt. Carmel a 38-31 lead at the 2:10 mark. Cape never got closer than four points the rest of the way.

The Cougars got 14 points from Goodsell and 13 from junior guard Jaden Washington.

Junior center Hayden Hudson made a big impact in the paint for the Vikings, contributing two points, 14 boards and three blocks, while Rishko chipped in five points and five rebounds.

Fruchtman saw the loss as an opportunity for growth.

“[Mt. Carmel’s] athleticism really pointed out our inability to handle physical play,” Fruchtman said. “They got in the paint, bodied us and got way too many offensive rebounds, but we can learn from that. We expected that they would be super physical and attack the basket every chance they could, so we tried to plan for that by taking away gaps and making them shoot it. We just came up short.”