By Jordan J. Michael

VOORHEESVILLE –– The Lady Blackbirds got out of the gates early on Tuesday and never looked back.

When the home basketball game against Cobleskill was all said and done, Voorheesville had obliterated the Bulldogs, 54 to 16. The halftime score was 32 to 10 and Cobleskill could only muster six more points in the second half.

“We run well, so we took the opponent out pretty early,” said Birds’ Head Coach Bob Baron on Wednesday. “Cobleskill likes to press, but we like to run, so it didn’t work out too well for them. We were in a good spot from the beginning.”

Nine of the 10 players on Voorheesville’s roster scored. Junior Jennifer Cillis led the team with 16 points and sophomore Anna Feller added 10. Junior Sarah Madden scored eight points and both Melissa Bogart and Emily Blow had six points each.

Even though the Blackbirds did plenty of scoring, Baron told The Enterprise that his team “worked extremely hard” on defense. This was an obvious fact because Cobleskill could score only 16 points in the entire game.

“It’s hard for another team to beat us if our defense holds the score that low,” Baron said. “The Bulldogs really weren’t that bad, but we did well.”

Since taking the team over in 2007, Baron has kept his player capacity quite low, usually nine players. That way, everyone gets a chance to play and contribute for Voorheesville.

“We got all the way to 10 players this year,” Baron said with a laugh. The 2010 team has two seniors, six juniors, and two sophomores. “If you’re going to make this team as an underclassmen, then you have to be a solid player; you have to be able to contribute,” he said.

“They still have lessons to learn, but they’re improving,” said Baron of his young team. “We’ll get to where we need to be with repetition and time.”

Baron said that the Birds have an array of skills –– size, speed, strong defense, and shooting. The team is a little taller than in the recent past with Cillis, Madden, and Feller.

“We’ll be looking to the post pretty often,” Baron said. “As far as the rest, everyone knows what skills they have and they try to bring it to the table.”

The Lady Birds have won its last three games since losing by two against Watervliet, a team Baron says is “tops” in the Colonial Council. Voorheesville travels to Schalmont on Friday and then hosts Ravena on Tuesday before the holiday break.

“We should be able to move forward and compete in every game,” said Baron. “There’s no reason why we can’t compete.”