Toma gets standing ovation, Reynolds' 3's power Tigers past Bulldogs

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the Cape Central Tiger’s unblemished season special.

In a game where the Tigers shot 10 3-point baskets to bury Notre Dame 65-32, the shot that generated the most buzz came late in the fourth quarter by senior Dalton Toma.

“Everybody loves Dalton,” Cape Central head coach Drew Church said. “We call him DT, and he busts his tail in practice and he always got a great attitude. He's just a likable kid.”

Up by 30 points going into the fourth quarter, Toma entered the court with the reserves and got an open look for a corner 3-pointer in front of the student section. As soon as the shot fell, with the ball flowing through the net, the fans erupted with excitement. Members of the front row, some of who played football and soccer in the fall, leaped higher than ever.

“You can just see how much everybody likes DT because of the reaction when made a shot,” Church said. “That was really cool to see him getting in the game because he doesn't get that much playing time but he busts his tail every day.

“He does whatever we asked him to do,” he added. “So when we can we want to reward him the playing time. He gets in there and he's not scared.”

Most of Cape Central’s shooting from beyond the arch came from junior Jaydon Reynolds, who made eight of the Tigers’ 10, finishing with a game-high 26 points. He made four 3-pointers in the third quarter, which was as many as Notre Dame made in the entire game.

“[Reynolds] shoots it well, Church said. “He puts a lot of time into his shooting. In like the last three or four games, he's really shot it well. Jay just kind of took what the defense gave him the night. They were packing it in like crazy, which opened up some outside shots and when he was there, he was on balance and he knocked them down.”

It was a change of pace after the previous 14 games being a showcase of dunks and fun fastbreaks.

“We always want to put our foundation on the defense of course,” Church said, “but in certain games, you got to take what the defense gives you and they were really double and triple teaming and dropping down on Cam Williams and LaTroy [McIntosh]. So you just didn't want to force it in there.”

Notre Dame put up a fight in the first quarter, trailing the Tigers 20-14 behind Kolton Johnson scoring eight of his team-leading 15 points. It was the only time the Bulldogs scored 10 points or more in a single quarter the rest of the game.

Led by a stout defense, the Tigers tamed the Bulldogs and held them to seven points in the second quarter and 11 points in the second half.

"More important anything, they had 21 points at halftime,” Church said. “I challenged our guys at halftime, they don't need to score more than 10 or 15 this half, and they responded and I thought, for the most part, the defense was good in the second half.”

One of the highlights for the Bulldogs was Brody Harden’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the third quarter. Notre Dame (5-9) returns home on Friday to host Kennett.

Cape Central (15-0) travels to Hazelwood Central on Friday.