Potsdam Uses Tough D To Advance

By STEVEN HEATON

TROY — The Potsdam boys basketball team put a defensive sting on the Plattsburgh Hornets on Saturday to earn the school's second state semifinal berth with a 62-38 Class B quarterfinal victory Saturday at Hudson Valley Community College.

"We've put a lot of hours in working on the defensive end, really everything stems from our defense," said Potsdam coach Steve Kmack. "We just defend well and that gets a lot of things going in transition. Our two big offensive spurts in the second half tonight were really defensive spurts."

Potsdam (21-2) will face Burke Catholic, a 74-46 quarterfinal winner over Malverne, on Friday evening at the Glens Falls Civic Center in the state semifinals. Potsdam reached the Final Four in Class C during the 2003 season, falling to Cooperstown in the semifinals.

"It's an emotional win here, a great victory for us," Kmack said. "We've worked really hard. We kind of had a disappointing loss in our last game against Massena, a team we beat twice during the regular season. After that, we had a little talk and we got it straightened out in like 10 minutes. And we were ready to begin playing like we had been playing for most of the year."

Zach Adams led Potsdam with 19 points. He finished 8-for-15 from the field, grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked three shots. Josh Adams went 7-for-10 from the field in a 14-point performance which was complemented by nine rebounds. Scott Bartenstein chipped in 13 points and collected seven assists. Jon Coleman added 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting and posted six rebounds.

A Bartenstein bucket gave Potsdam a 12-7 lead with 1 minute, 11 seconds left in the first quarter. A Tre Bucci 3-pointer with 3:22 left in the second quarter cut the Plattsburgh deficit to 19-18, but Josh Adams scored two straight buckets and the Sandstoners eventually went into halftime leading 25-21.

Bartenstein fired in a 3-pointer with 6:09 left in the third quarter for a 30-25 lead and after Plattsburgh was called with an offensive foul, the Sandstoners broke open the game with eight straight points on a layup by Coleman, two drives by Zach Adams and a basket from Chris Whispell for a quick 38-25 advantage.

Leading 44-31 after three quarters, Potsdam ran off the first 10 points of the fourth on a Josh Adams put-back, a Whispell basket from Zach Adams, two inside moves by Bartenstein, and a layup from Whispell to make it 54-31, essentially putting the game out of reach.

"In the first half, we didn't rebound well and we didn't get to the loose balls," Kmack said. "We got down and dirty in the second half. Our defense really keyed some fast breaks, at times we had four or five in a row."

Potsdam shot 29-for-51 from the floor compared with Plattsburgh's 13-for-51 and also out-rebounded the Hornets 39-28.

Kyle Knight scored 10 points and tallied four rebounds for Plattsburgh. Bucci added nine points.

"We've been there once before in 2003, and we lost a heartbreaker to Cooperstown," Kmack said. "It was my dream to back there someday and it's nice to be going back."