Delaware State News photos/Marc Clery

CAMDEN — The best news Alexis Reid heard all night came before she even took a shot.

It was when coach Bill Victory told the Caesar Rodney High junior guard that Sussex Central was playing a zone defense.

“That’s a shooter’s main dream,” Reid said with a smile.

Scoring mostly from the outside, Reid poured in a career-high 23 points as the Riders stayed unbeaten with a 57-43 win over Sussex Central in a Henlopen Northern Division girls’ basketball showdown on Friday night.

The 5-foot-2 Reid netted 14 points in the first quarter alone and had 22 of the first 42 points for the Riders (5-0 North, 10-0 overall). Reid, who sank four three-pointers, was averaging 10 points a game before the contest.

Even Central coach Ron Dukes came over to congratulate Reid after the game.

“A zone buster,” said Victory. “Two of our kids who normally score struggled tonight. So somebody else had to step up and do it. That’s good. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

“I feel like we’re all doing our part,” said Reid. “It’s not just one player that’s scoring. So no one really knows how to defend us.”

Friday’s victory was a little bit of revenge for CR after losing two out of three games to the Golden Knights (4-1 North, 7-2 overall) a year ago.

The last of Central’s wins was in a special playoff game to decide the North crown.

But the Riders trailed only once on Friday, at 3-2 in the opening two minutes. CR later went up by 14 points in the second quarter before taking a 30-21 advantage into intermission.

The Knights did close within 30-25 on a drive by Tameeyah Bowden with 6:52 left in the third quarter. CR, however, finished the quarter on a 14-5 run and was never seriously challenged again.

“We talked about keeping our heads in the game, not taking anybody too lightly,” said Reid.

Besides Reid, sophomore Kylie Kornegay-Lucas tallied a season-high 12 points for the Riders with senior Victoria Sebastian scoring nine.

Ambria Stratton had a team-high 10 points for the Knights while Azayah Garrison and Raeonna Stratton added nine apiece. Central has only one senior on a 10-player roster that includes five sophomores and a freshman.

CR and the Knights will square off again on Feb. 14 in Georgetown. At the moment, the Riders are playing with a great deal of confidence.

Since last season, CR has won 21 of its last 22 regular-season games.

“We just want to put another win under belt and move on to the next game,” said Reid.

“There’s going to be adversity that comes along,” said Victory. “You have to be able, as a team, to pound that rock until we get past that adversity. And these kids continue to do that.”