Cape girls’ basketball team handles Riders 50-29
The Cape Lady Vikings moved to 3-0 on the season Jan. 19 with a 50-29 romp over Caesar Rodney at the Cape gymnasium.
Cape started out slowly, only scoring nine points in the first quarter, but picked it up to win by a comfortable margin of 21 points.
“Honestly, I think we were all a little nervous; I know I was,” said Mehkia Applewhite. “Because we were going head-to-head with a great team for first place in the conference.”
Applewhite led the Vikings with 17 points, including three three-pointers and six rebounds. She also defensively shut down Riders scorer Jada McCullough, who didn’t hit a shot.
“Mehkia is the most dominant player in the conference,” said Cape head coach Pat Woods. “She always plays the opponent’s best player. She’s everywhere.”
“I asked coach if I could guard her,” Applewhite replied. “I played with her in the summer too, so we know each other.”
Morgan Mahoney had a double-double, hitting for 10 points and snagging 10 rebounds while making four steals.
Julia Saleur added 10 points and four steals. She now has 15 steals in three games for the Vikings.
Junior point guard Ella Rishko had five steals and four assists.
Lauryn Head and Destiny Kusen continued to dominate under the boards, grabbing 10 and eight rebounds, respectively.
“Coming off the bench, it takes me a while to get in the groove,” Head said. “When I get into it, I come to play.”
“It’s fun,” Rishko said. “It’s fun playing with everybody. We just enjoy it so much. Everyone works so hard. I would not trade one of my teammates for anyone else.”
“We took our frantic pace on defense, which is what we want to do,” said Woods. “But in the first quarter, we didn’t slow down and execute on offense. We need to tighten up on offense, and we have to tighten up our fundamentals.”
Cape travels to Smyrna Friday, Jan. 22, to face the 2-1 Eagles.
