Cape Central falls to Farmington, rebuilding year ends with exceeded expectations

The Cape Central girls' basketball team could not replicate their magical upset win on Thursday and saw their season end on their home court.

The Tigers went down fighting in a 45-38 loss to No. 3 seed Farmington in the semifinal round of the Class 5 District 1 Tournament on Saturday, March 8, in Cape Girardeau.

Senior Brooklyn Moss led the Tigers with 11 points, while Jamie Dawson-Ide scored 10 points. Moss is one of three seniors who will be departing after providing an impact on Sommer McCauley-Perdue's rebuilding project.

"She had a lot of impact," said McCauley-Perdue, who referred to Moss as a coach on the floor. "She stepped in and did a lot of things differently than the year before. I put a lot of weight on her, and she took it gracefully."

The Tigers earned an early 14-11 lead on the Knights after the first quarter. However, it was the only period in which Cape Central would score 10 points or more.

They kept it close, but with Kate Jackson scoring 18 points with five three-point baskets and Lila Roth putting up half of her 12 points in the fourth quarter, a Farmington victory seemed inevitable.

"It really wasn't physical," McCauley-Perdue said. "It was the mental and just pushing it out in the fourth quarter. I'm dealing with a young team. I only got three seniors. A lot of the time is mostly my younger kids, so they're still learning and just pushing a little bit more and struggle with it. But I'm still extremely proud of them."

In what was originally billed as a rebuilding season under a first-year head coach, the Tigers finished the 2024-25 season with two more wins than the previous year and defeated Festus for the third postseason in a row.

"It definitely exceeds my expectations," McCauley-Perdue said. "I had told our girls that this was going to be a journey, and we're rebuilding, but at the end of the year, it will all make sense to them. And it made sense to them when we came in the districts. They knew it was 0-0, everything that we learned all through the year, we need to put it on the floor."

Basketball is only the second sport McCauley-Perdue has been tasked with building up at Cape Central. She previously took control of the volleyball team and took the Tigers to their best season in over a decade. This season she saw a young team buy-in, preparing through film study, asking for further coaching, and consistently improving.

"I give them accountability for that and they exceeded," McCauley-Perdue said. "They were great."