By Chris Stevens, Editor
Falling behind 10-2 in the second quarter of any basketball game is cause for most coaches to be concerned.
Fortunately for William Penn, famed alumnus and boys head coach Gary Lumpkin is not most coaches.
“We just had a settling in our spirit,” Lumpkin said after the Colonials rallied to a 53-48 win over Cape Henlopen in Tuesday night’s DIAA boys’ basketball tournament first round game. “We hadn’t scored just two points in a quarter all year, so we knew all we had to do was make some shots, move the ball, defend and rebound, and we did that today.”
“We know everybody makes a run,” added senior guard Devin Hackett, who led all scorers with 15 points. “We just had to make ours and stay focused.”
Early on, it was the Vikings who were running and gunning behind senior guard Nathan Sivels, whose 10 first half points included a second-quarter buzzer beating bank shot from well beyond the three-point line to give Cape a 23-19 lead at the half. Sivels led the Vikings, who finished the season 4-10, with 13 points.
Penn came out firing in the third, scoring 8 of the first 10 points of the period for a brief 27-25 lead. Cape got two easy buckets to go back in front 29-27 before sophomore guard Corey Mitchell (10 points) drained a left-wing three to give Penn the lead for good. Mitchell, Hackett and Jehiah Eldridge (eight points) made four of Penn’s five three-point shots in the second half to provide the difference.
For Lumpkin, point guard of the 1994 state championship Colonials, the win was sweet as he looks forward to a match-up with a former teammate next up on Thursday.
“Coach [Rahsaan] Matthews was with me on that team,” Lumpkin said of Penn’s next opponent, Flight B champion Howard. “This is why I came back – I wanted to keep that winning tradition going and have the guys have the moments me and my teammates had.”
“Coach Lump and Coach [Tail] Davis won a championship here, so they’ve been showing us that we can do it too,” Mitchell said.
