Cape Henlopen coach Stephen Re motivates his team between the first and second quarters. The Vikings rallied for a 47-46 victory at Smyrna on Friday night.
SMYRNA – After a horrendous first quarter, Cape Henlopen’s starting five came within a whisker of taking a seat for the rest of the night.
“We weren’t really fighting hard for the win, and [coach Stephen Re] said he was just going to sub us all out and we weren’t going to play anymore if we kept it up,” the Vikings’ Ian Robertson said. “That really got us going.”
Cape Henlopen turned it up a notch, took the lead with a huge run and barely held on at the end to hand Smyrna its first loss, 47-46, in a key Henlopen North boys basketball game Friday night.
The Vikings (5-5, 4-1) broke a four-game losing streak. But it looked bleak when they were trailing 13-5 after one quarter.
“I asked them, ‘When are you going to get tired of losing?’” Re said. “You know me, I’m extremely intense, and I can’t stand it.”
The Cape starters stood up after the scolding and responded with a 13-0 run. Robertson hit a layup, and Randy Rickards drove for a score and dunked on a fast break. Jerry Harden bombed a 3-pointer from the left wing, Rasheed Woods turned Robertson’s rebound into a fast break score, and Woods and Rickards each hit a free throw to push the Vikings to an 18-15 lead with 2:32 left in the first half.
“When we compete with the right energy and we play together, you can do anything,” Re said. “You can beat anybody if you’ve got the right mindset.”
Sophomore Ian Robertson led Cape Henlopen with 17 points, including three 3-pointers.
Cape led 23-20 at the half, and 34-31 after three quarters. Woods’ 3-pointer from the right wing extended the margin to 45-38 with 1:38 to play, but the fourth-ranked Eagles (5-1, 3-1) mustered a rally.
Donte Ritchie scored on a putback and Ja’vier Worthy drove for two layups to pull Smyrna within 47-44 with 17.1 seconds remaining. Robertson missed the front end of a one-and-one with 15.9 to go, and Worthy drove for another layup to make it 47-46.
Robertson again went to the line for a one-and-one with 4.1 seconds left. He missed, but got a hand on Ritchie’s heave from three-quarters court at the buzzer to preserve Cape’s win.
“I went up and I deflected it,” Robertson said. “It probably could have been a foul, but the ref didn’t call it.”
Robertson, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, led the Vikings with 17 points. Rickards added 10 points and 10 rebounds while fighting a game-long cramp in his right leg.
“Ian hit some huge shots,” Re said. “He was terrific tonight. He missed a couple of free throws at the end, but he played well on both ends of the floor.”
Worthy led the Eagles with 20 points, 18 of them coming in the final 10 minutes as Smyrna fought furiously to catch up. But the Eagles hit only 2 of 21 3-point attempts.
After a 58-57 win at William Penn on Dec. 10, Smyrna’s last three wins had come by at least 16 points.
“Coach Re always has a solid, disciplined team that’s going to fight you for four quarters,” Eagles coach Andrew Mears said. “We knew what we were going to get. It was just our first look at true adversity, and I don’t think we stepped up to the challenge.”
Re called the win “a huge step forward.” The Vikings lost to top-flight Maryland opponents Arundel and Bishop McNamara and two of Delaware’s best – Appoquinimink and Dover – during a brutal stretch. Now, Cape has eight of its last 10 games at home.
“It’s going to be huge for our confidence,” Robertson said. “Especially coming off a tough loss, a bad loss, against Dover [70-51] on Tuesday. This game will really help us going through the season.”
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ