LANSINGBURGH — Getting the basketball out, and running with it is something the Voorheesville girls do very well; they wasted no time doing what they wanted to do against Lansingburgh on Tuesday night.

Voorheesville held Lansingburgh to 10 points under its usual average with intense defense while using its breaking speed on offense to score about 20 more points than it usually does. The Blackbirds won, 62 to 43.

“When we break, we break hard,” said Voorheesville Head Coach Bob Baron. “We go hard on everything that we do. If you’re going to press us, we’ll try to punish you because we break pretty well.”

More often than not on Tuesday night, a Voorheesville player was out ahead anticipating a pass for an opportunity to score. And, in most of those instances, the player found the basket.

“We want to get it out quick and score the easy lay-ups,” said junior Rachael Bogdany, who scored 22 points for the Birds on her 17^th birthday. “We always try to break, push ahead, and sprint to the spots where we’re supposed to be. We all do our job and make those quick passes.”

In the second quarter, Bogdany scored 10 straight points, bookended with three-pointers, as the Knights couldn’t do much more then watch. The Blackbirds played mistake-free basketball in the second quarter, scoring 21 points, and leading by 14 at halftime. Before the final few seconds ticked off the clock, Bogdany stole the ball and scored at the other end.

“It’s a really good team to be on,” Bogdany said of Voorheesville. “Everyone has very good ball skills, and everyone is very quick.”

^{_{Out of reach? Voorheesville got a 19-point win over Lansingburgh on the road on Tuesday night. Here, the Blackbirds’ Rachael Bogdany, right, looks up at the ball (out of frame) for which the Knights’ Kyle Horton (#44) and another Birds’ player are fighting. Bogdany scored a game-high 22 points on her 17th birthday. The Enterprise — Jordan J. Michael}}

Baron told The Enterprise that the Blackbirds work on primary and secondary breaks every day. “They know where to be and they run quickly,” he said. “They’re in good enough shape now to run for most of the game.”

Voorheesville was 2-6 coming into the game at Lansingburgh. Baron said that his team finally got the confidence to play the basketball that it should, and it started with having a better shot selection.

“Our shooting wasn’t so good before,” said Baron. “Finishing inside and driving opens up the perimeters, and that happened.”

The Knights started to get its ducks in order in the third quarter, pulling to within five points, 36 to 31, but the Blackbirds had a nice spurt of energy to push its lead back to 10. Lansingburgh came to within seven, 46 to 39, in the fourth quarter, but Emily Burke, who was up from junior varsity for Voorheesville, made a three-pointer, and then another shot.

Burke scored eight points for Voorheesville in her first varsity game. The six juniors — Bogdany, Rachel Blow, Victoria Coluccio, Jordan Pettograsso, Laura Patak, and Stephany Keenan — have been working under Baron’s same system for the last two years.

“They know where to be, and we don’t run a lot of offensive plays because we play drive and kick basketball — basic basketball,” said Baron. “They know where to go, how to help, how to fill the seams, how to throw behind, screen and roll, and find space to get open. It comes from playing together and having confidence.”

Voorheesville had intensity and quickness from day one. Against Lansingburgh, everything else was in its right place.

“We’ve taken a step forward, but we think we have another step or two to go,” Baron said. “We’re making the right moves and taking the right angles.”

^{_{Hip check: Voorheesville’s Victoria Coluccio, right, tries to dribble around the defense of Lansingburgh’s Diamond Davis during the first half of Tuesday’s game, which the Blackbirds won, 62 to 43. Voorheesville (2-4, 3-6) got nine points from Jordan Pettograsso and eight from Emily Burke, who came up from junior varsity. The Enterprise — Jordan J. Michael}}