Catskill Slams Voorheesville Lance Wheeler Video

Columbia Greene Media CATSKILL – The Catskill boy’s basketball team defeated Voorheesville, 89-79, in a first-round Section II Class B playoff game on Tuesday. The No. 4 Cats move on to the Class B quarterfinals and will play No. 5 Fonda on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Shenendehowa High School. No. 13 Voorheesville built a 45-38 lead by halftime at halftime, using 3-pointers to their advantage to control the game early on. But thanks to strong offense from Justice Brantley and Devon Haye, along with strong defense by Kellen Gibbs and Melik Christian, Catskill was able to take the win. “It’s the first game that coaching staffs are most worried about.” Catskill’s coach, Doug Lampman said, “Are we in tournament form or are we in regular season form? I think, a lot of stuff broke Voorheesville's way. We had to dig down deep and find the pride in ourselves to compete against them. I was proud how they came out in the second half.” Justice Brantley lead the team with a season-high of 47 points, including three 3-pointers, while nailing 18 of 22 free throws in the game. Devon Haye followed with 23 points, including one 3-pointer. “Justice had a great game; he had some monster assists especially when they started getting on him and also finishing at the basket,” Lampman said, “Devon continues to have an amazing game for us, when they start focusing on Justice then Devon starts to go after it and plays really well.” Kellen Gibbs added nine points for Catskill and solid defense, Bervonis Donely added six and Melik Christian had four points and played stellar defense. “Melik really changed the story in the second half with defense.” Lampman said, “We asked him to adjust and he did beyond our expectations. Melik is a special defender.” Joe Saia scored 26 points for Voorheesville, including three 3-pointers. Evan Ensslin scored 15 points, including a 3-pointer. Gavin Esposito and Tanner Tedesco both scored 12 points for the blackbirds. Esposito scored four 3-pointers and Tedesco scored two 3-pointers. “It was a total team victory,” Lampman said, “We will keep working hard and hopefully come up with a plan that will get us to the next round.” CATSKILL (89): M. Christian 1-2-4, K. Gibbs 2-5-9, J. Brantley 13-18-47, D. Haye 10-2-23, B. Donely 3-0-6. Totals 39-27-89. 3-pointers: Brantley 3, Haye. VOORHEESVILLE (79): I. Owens 0-2-2, G. Esposito 4-0-12, T. Tedesco 5-0-12, N. Parker 3-0-6, E. Ensslin 7-0-15, J. Saia 11-1-26, J. Barringer 1-0-2, Picini 2-0-4. Totals 33-3-79. 3-pointers: Esposito 4, Tedesco 2, Ensslin, Saia 3.