CFNN Reporter Julius Lucas

Cape Fear boys basketball team grinded their way into overtime Tuesday night against Jack Britt, using clutch shooting and tough defense to have a chance at a win. Unfortunately, they came up short with a tough loss.

The home game was a key conference match-up for Cape Fear. The Colts looked to establish a winning conference record for the first time this year. Mekhai Coleman led the team in scoring with 21 points. Damien Gary repeatedly opened up opportunities for his team to score with 6 assists. Sophomore sensation Geronimo Sanchez chipped in some tough defense and some physical low post play to keep the Colts in contention. Sanchez ended the game with 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal.

Coleman drained a last second three-pointer in the fourth to send the Colts into overtime. With that momentum the team looked to capitalize and bring home their second conference win of the season.

“I took easy buckets trying to be in the right spot at the right time trying not to do too much and not trying to do too little,” said Coleman.

This Goldilocks mentality scored him 21 points on the night. Coleman led all scorers for the contest.

The Colts ended the first quarter with a one point lead 9-8. Tough defense from both sides kept the scoring low. Coleman and Gary combined for 3 of their 6 steals.

The second quarter saw a flurry of scoring as the action picked up, and both teams had solutions for the tough defense. The Colts ended up down five going into the break 18-23.

Cape Fear kept things close in the third quarter but struggled to get the lead, averaging a tough nine points per quarter, ending the quarter 27-35.

The Colts made a huge run in the fourth quarter scoring a whopping 14 points to Britt’s 6, sending the game into overtime.

In overtime the Colts tried their hardest to secure the win but just couldn’t win the game. In the end they lost by 1 point with the final score being 44-43.

“We need to execute at the end of the day. We had 11 days where we were off a little bit. This time we just didn’t execute, didn’t get quality shots from the right people, but that’s correctable,” said Head Coach Alphonza Kee.

The loss puts the Colts at 1-2 in conference play and 4-7 overall. They are back in action tonight against Southview, and hope to even up their conference record to 2-2.