Davis burns Cape in 85-60 loss
Dover junior guard Eden Davis poured in 17 straight points during a four-minute second-quarter flurry and finished with 31, as the unbeaten Senators humbled host Cape Henlopen 85-60 in a boys’ basketball matchup Jan. 8 in Lewes.
After an inauspicious 2-for-9 start, Dover’s 5-foot-11 dynamo hit six consecutive jumpers – three of them from well beyond the three-point arc – in the final 4:05 of the second period. By the time Davis capped off his deadeye display with a 27-foot bomb at the 47-second mark, he’d turned a competitive game into a romp.
Davis nearly outscored Cape by himself in the first half, putting 25 points on the board as Dover took a 49-28 lead into the locker room. The Senators pushed the margin to as many as 31 points midway through the third period and cruised home from there.
Davis, who dropped 34 points on the Vikings as a freshman in 2017, finished 10-of-19 from the floor and connected on five of his seven three-point tries.
He wasn’t Dover’s only weapon, as the Senators used their superior height and athleticism to dominate from the opening tap. Senior forward Eric White, one of seven Dover players listed at 6-foot-2 or taller, scored 19 points on 9-for-10 shooting and snared five offensive rebounds. Junior guard Elijah Allen added nine points for the Senators (10-0, 6-0 Henlopen North), who outrebounded Cape 37-18 and shot a healthy 51 percent from the floor.
The Vikings (4-5, 3-3 Henlopen North) got 19 points from Collin Mallet, who made the most of his first career start by draining six three-pointers. The junior guard caught fire in the third quarter, when he knocked down four long-balls without a miss. Mallet, filling in for injured freshman Kay'von Allen, had scored a total of 17 points in five previous appearances this season.
“I’ve waited a long time to have a game like this, but it’s tough to do it in a loss and with our team trimmed down [by injuries],” Mallet said. “As a team, we just need to keep practicing hard.”
Sophomore forward Ethan Pires netted 14 points and swatted away four shots for Cape, which also got 12 points and seven steals from junior guard Kris Rushin. Senior guard Luke D’Ambrogi hit a pair of three-pointers for a career-high six points, while sophomore guard Jeremiah Dadzie saw his first varsity action and hit a three of his own. Sophomore guard Ja’Vaughn Burton, junior wing Jo Jo Kirby and junior forward Sam Luciano-Solomon chipped in two points apiece.
Head coach Steve Re weighed the pros and cons of his team’s performance.
“We played really hard,” Re said. “We just have to be tougher and sharper consistently on both ends of the court. In the second half, our offensive concepts and the way we spaced the floor against Dover’s pressure [were] excellent. Defensively, we’re still really late, really unfocused.”
Re wasn’t happy that the Vikings let Davis get loose.
“We talked about where on the floor we were supposed to pick up Davis. We worked on it all day in practice yesterday. ‘Where do you get him off his spots?’ And we were way late time and time again.”
The Vikings hit 10 of their 23 three-point attempts on the night (44 percent) and have gone 30-for-67 from downtown (45 percent) over their last three games.
Cape continues its seven-game homestand Friday, Jan. 11, when Smyrna visits the Big House for a 6:15 p.m. tip. The Vikings squeaked past the Eagles 53-51 on Nov. 30.
