Tigers stumble in stretch

The look of frustration on coach Derek McCord's face told the whole story.

Cape Central's inexperience showed down the stretch in a 65-57 loss to Farmington at the Tiger Fieldhouse Thursday night.

The Tigers (1-5), who started four sophomores, failed to score in the last three minutes of the contest after a tie at 57-57.

Farmington evened its record at 4-4.

Three turnovers, an offensive foul and lackadaisical defense hindered the Tigers in the late going.

"We've just got to get guys to step up and emerge as leaders," said McCord. "Tonight we kept looking over our shoulders for someone to take charge. No one did and until that happens we're not going to reach our potential."

Cape Central sorely missed its only experienced floor leader, junior point-guard Willie Colon, who is out with a strained ACL. He is expected to return in about two weeks.

McCord, on Colon's absence, said, "Tonight we played like a body without a head. Willie (Colon) is a veteran and a big part of this team."

In the waning moments of the final period, a big 3-pointer from Andy Mell, who finished with 22 points to lead all scorers, sent the Knights up 60-57. Mell hit four treys on the night.

Four clutch free-throws by Adam Schweiss with less than a minute left sealed the victory for Farmington.

The Tigers fell behind early in the contest and trailed by a 15-11 margin after the first quarter, but battled back to take its first lead at the 5:30 mark of the second stanza at 20-19.

The first half ended in a 29-29 tie.

A closely contested third quarter saw Farmington take a one-point lead into the final quarter at 46-45.

"We thought coming in that it would go down to the wire just like it did," said Farmington coach Justin Callahan."We've played some common opponents and had similar kinds of outcomes, so I felt it would be a close game."

Cape Central was led in scoring by senior guard Matt Cardin with 16 points. Sophomores Mitch Craft and Seville Bell added nine each.

Craft and Bell also led the Tigers' rebounding effort with eight apiece, as Cape Central outrebounded Farmington 34-29.

Cape Central, led by Wayne Wiggins' 14 points, won the JV contest 49-34