TIGERS HOLD OFF RIVERVIEW GARDENS

Cape Central made a good first impression in a 62-59 win over Riverview Gardens on Saturday.

But, as the Tigers found out, you can't always judge a team on a first impression.

After a 14-0 start, Central (8-10) looked as if it would coast to an easy win, but the streaky Rams (4-12) eventually took the lead in the fourth quarter and had two chances in the final five seconds to send the game into overtime.

The Rams' first potential tying shot was an open look by Erwin Daniels from the left wing that fell short off the side of the rim. Daniels ended up with 20 points.

Central's Eric Wessel came down with Daniels' miss and was fouled with 3.6 seconds left with an opportunity to seal the game. But the junior guard missed both shots and Riverview Gardens' 5-foot-5 senior guard Kyle Younge heaved a shot from halfcourt that caught the front of the rim but missed as time expired.

"Riverview just stays after you," Central coach Brett Reutzel said. "They're tenacious. They just don't stop. That's got to wear on you after a while to continually be trapped and harassed ... You just have to continue to fight."

The Tigers, after owning a lead as big as 16 points late in the first quarter, lost the edge for the first time with 2:40 left in the third quarter when Rams guard Raymond Moore hit a shot to tie the game at 41.

With 1:03 left in the third quarter, Riverview Gardens took its first lead of the game, 46-45, and added to it on its next possession to take a 48-45 lead, its biggest advantage of the game.

The two teams traded leads and ties throughout the fourth quarter until Wessel, who scored 15 points, hit a 3-pointer from the right wing with 3:02 left to spark a 7-0 run, which put the Tigers up 60-53 with :59.5 remaining.

All Central needed to do was make its free throws and the game would have been over. But the Tigers, who made 26 of 30 foul shots the night before, missed their last four free throws and allowed the Rams to try to scramble for overtime.

The Rams' frenzied full-court pressure pestered Central into committing 23 turnovers.

But in the fourth quarter, Central turned the ball over only two times, despite having its point guard Nick Swoboda on the bench after fouling out with 3:50 left.

"It was hard watching the game (from the bench), but I think the guys did well there at the end," Swoboda said. "They took the ball down real well and they held on, which was the big thing."

"You need more than one point guard against them, you need about five of them," Reutzel said. "I thought Kelly (Illers) and Robbie (Winschel) and Donnie (McClinton) and Eric Wessel all did a good job handling the basketball at the end and handling their press."

Ross Conner scored a team-high 20 points, eight of which came in the first quarter.

The reason Central jumped out to such a big lead was because Rams coach Todd Dutton started four freshman because his usual starters had not performed well in practice.

"We had some kids who haven't been focusing in practice so they weren't playing," Dutton said. "The kids who did play did what they could do. Gradually we put other guys in the game. But I thought our kids played hard and that's the first thing I ask them to do."

"I think they turned up the pressure a little bit more in the second quarter," Swoboda said. "They tried to keep us from getting the ball in bounds, but we kept working hard at it. I think overall we played real well."