By Michael Lindsay

Boys

Stone Memorial High School senior Cade Capps added another career milestone to his resume on Tuesday as he scored his 2,351st career point to surpass Brandon Cole as the program’s all-time leading scorer in a 74-52 victory at Clarkrange.

“It’s hard for people to understand what goes into achieving that,” said Stone Memorial head coach Neil Capps. “There’s a connection between Brandon and Cade; when Cade was about 5 years old, Brandon would rebound for him and mentoring him. As Cade’s parent, his mother, sister and I are extremely proud of the work he puts in.”

Capps scored 29 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the win and became Stone Memorial’s all-time leading scorer on the same floor he scored his 2,000th career point on last season.

“It’s something I’ve put a lot of work into,” said Cade Capps. “It’s not something you really think about until you’re close to it. I looked up to Brandon when I was a little kid, and to break a record with somebody like that holding it is special.

“The guys kind of knew too,” added Capps on his teammates this year. “My teammates are great and are always supporting me. This is one of the closest teams I’ve ever been on.”

The Panthers jumped out to a 22-6 lead in the first quarter and held a 32-23 advantage at halftime before extending their lead in the second half to win by a 74-52 final score.

“We played well in the first, third and fourth quarters,” added coach Capps. “It’s always a tough environment coming to Clarkrange, but defensively I thought we did a much better job in the second half. We still have a lot to improve on.”

Stone Memorial improves to 6-1 overall while Clarkrange falls to 0-3. The Panthers travel to York Institute on Friday while Clarkrange hosts Cumberland County.

Girls

Before Capps’ historic night in the boys game, the Clarkrange Lady Buffaloes earned a 53-48 victory over the Lady Panthers behind 21 points from Lydia Phillips.

“I thought we played really well,” said Clarkrange head coach Lamar Rogers. “We got in too big of a hurry in the fourth quarter, but overall I’m pleased. They have some really nice players and coach Mike Buck does a great job.”

Clarkrange jumped out to a 19-4 lead after the first quarter and led 26-12 at halftime.

“I think our press and matchup zone were the difference,” said Rogers. “They played some zone on us then went to a really good man-to-man.”

The Lady Buffaloes took a 41-23 lead into the fourth quarter before Stone Memorial trimmed their deficit to 51-46 via a Lily Hinch basket with 1:25 remaining.

Stone Memorial would get no closer than 5 points down the stretch as Clarkrange held on to win by a 53-48 final score.

Clarkrange improves to 5-1 overall while the Lady Panthers fall to 2-4. Stone Memorial travels to York Institute on Friday while Clarkrange hosts Cumberland County.

“We’ve still got work to do on our basketball IQ,” said Rogers. “Our decision making in the fourth quarter showed we’ve still got something to work on. Stone sped the game up in the fourth and we had to make split-second decisions, and some of them weren’t the best.”