GIRLS BASKETBALL Howland's Cape is hopeful after having knee surgery

The all-Ohio basketball player was injured in a scrimmage for the Ohio North-South All-Star game.
By BRIAN RICHESSON
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
HOWLAND -- If only Angela Cape could have lasted five more minutes, she wouldn't be in this condition -- immobilized, the victim of a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
The 6-foot-3 All-Ohio senior center for the Howland High girls basketball team is looking to the future with hope, after undergoing 31/2 hours of reconstructive surgery this week to repair damage in her right knee.
"Everything happens for a reason," said Cape, after returning home Thursday from Trumbull Memorial Hospital.
How it happened: The play that knocked Cape off a straight path to the University of Dayton, where she will play this year, came in the final five minutes of an all-star game practice April 7 in Westerville.
During a scrimmage for the Ohio North-South game at Otterbein College, Cape and a teammate were on a 2-on-1 fast break. Cape caught a pass in the air near the basket.
"I caught it and I was looking to pass it back to her," said Cape, who averaged around 20 points per game last season. "I should have just [gone] up and shot it. I was trying to be fancy."
When Cape landed, her knee collapsed and she fell to the floor.
"I got up and walked off without any help," she said. "I couldn't get comfortable the rest of the night. When I woke up the next morning, it had swelled up like a balloon. It was so huge."
Results of the tests were not good -- torn ACL, two torn meniscuses and a chipped bone, all in her right knee.
"I was stunned, because she's very athletic and she's in great shape," Howland coach John Diehl said. "I didn't think she could do that.
"But they practiced for two hours straight and they got kind of tired."
Matter of time: Doctors came to a conclusion that the ACL already had been weak, said Cape, who played in the Ohio-Kentucky all-star game the night before at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth.
"It would have [collapsed] eventually," Cape said of the ligament. "I guess it's better it happened now, because I can rebuild it before I go to college. I can be so much stronger."
Cape said her coaches at Dayton were not happy in the practice format, which involved the two hours of scrimmaging, for the all-star game.
"I think the practice should have been more controlled," said Cape, who added that some of the other girls suffered minor injuries.
"That's stupid," she said. "If the top players in Ohio are playing against one another, you can't tell me no one is going to get hurt."
One of the hardest parts for Cape is dealing with the frustration of being sidelined from her fast-paced athletic lifestyle. She was involved in the shot put, discus and 4x400 relay on the Tigers' track and field team and was a member of an AAU basketball team.
"I think somebody is trying to tell me to take a little break," said Cape, who plans to be in top condition in six months.
"Gosh, I'm going to appreciate my knees so much more."