LEWES — When Randy Rickards nailed a buzzer-beater to end the third quarter he made it a one-possession game and brought the home Cape Henlopen High crowd to its feet.

But instead of sparking a tight finish, that basket turned out to be the final field goal of the night for the Vikings.

Dover High clamped down defensively on the Vikings and hit enough free throws to earn a 47-35 victory on Tuesday night. With the win, the Senators moved to two games ahead of Cape in the Henlopen Conference Northern Division with three left on their schedule.

Cape Henlopen missed all 10 shots it took from the field in the fourth quarter and turned the ball over three times. The Vikings only points came on five free throws.

Meanwhile the Senators (12-3) scored points on their first two possessions of the fourth quarter, on Troy Scott’s putback and Terrence Woodlin’s hook shot, for a 37-30 lead and Cape never got closer than five points the rest of the way.

Dover stayed unbeaten in the Henlopen North (9-0), but coach Stephen Wilson knew it wasn’t the prettiest performance from his squad.

“Right now it’s about getting wins,” Wilson said. “We didn’t do it the way we wanted to do it, but the bottom line is we got a win. This is not how we play. We’ve got to get much better to reach our goals. I know we’re a much better team than what we showed tonight. I do like the way they grinded it out, but we have high expectations and our high expectations don’t waver no matter who we play.”

Mike Douglas knocked down seven of eight free throw attempts in the final two minutes to seal it for Dover.

Douglas was also the game’s top scorer with 16 points.

“As a senior, I know how to step up and hit these free throws,” Douglas said. “My teammates knew I could hit free throws so they constantly gave me the ball to shoot free throws.”

Cape Henlopen (6-2 North, 8-7 overall) was in front in the second quarter after sophomore Ian Robertson converted a layup and drained a three on the next possession for a 16-12 advantage. Steven Justice gave Dover the lead back with a basket off a rebound and the Senators were able to take a 20-19 lead into halftime.

Dover scored the first five points of the second half on a three by Douglas and a two-handed dunk by Justice. Cape Henlopen twice closed the gap to a point, but the Senators outscored Cape 14-5 in the fourth.

“It was winnable,” said Cape coach Stephen Re. “We were there but we missed free throws and missed several baskets that we should have made in the fourth quarter.”

Jordan Allen was Dover’s only other player in double figures. Allen, a Rider University commit, was held to a pair of three-pointers in the second half and ended with 10 points.

“We were great defensively,” Re said. “ I thought we did the best job anyone has done on all year. I don’t know what that means though, we lost. It doesn’t mean much.”

Scott scored eight points, Justice chipped in seven and Woodlin added six in a balanced effort for Dover.

“People think that if they can stop Jordan they can shut us down but so far in our division everybody has tried to do the same thing,” Wilson said. “We’re not just ‘Jordan and the flunkies’ we’re Dover High and if you take Jordan away, the next guy steps up. Jordan’s not worried about his points, he’s worried about winning basketball games.”

Demetrius Price paced the Vikings with 10 points. Robertson and William Yeates followed with nine apiece.

“To give up 35 points to a good team like Cape says something about our defense,” Wilson said. “But I still think we need to get a lot better in order to reach our goals.”