Cats claim Battle of the Bridge

CATSKILL -- The Catskill Cats overpowered the Hudson Bluehawks on Tuesday night, winning their Patroon Conference boys basketball showdown, 89-59. 

This was Catskill’s first win in the Battle of the Bridge series, after a four year streak of losing to Hudson.  DeVon Haye and Lavon Fernandez imposed their will on the court throughout the game and scored a combined 60 points (Haye 32, Fernandez 28). 

Fernandez transferred from Hudson this year, his senior season, and put on a clinic against his former team.

“It feels crazy that everybody is rooting against me because I switched schools,” Fernandez said.  “What motivated me was that Battle of the Bridge Cup; I won it at Hudson, and I wanted to be the first one to win it on both sides.”

Noah Hedgepeth was Hudson’s leading contributor with 17 points, and Dayquan Griffin was close behind with 16 of his own. 

The game was a close fight in the first half, and was highlighted by a huge chase down block from Bluehawks’ sophomore Isaiah Maines in the first quarter, and Fernandez scoring 9 points of his 28 in the second.

 The Cats went into the half up 37-30, but quickly went on an 8-0 run, and jumped out to a 15-point lead as the third period began. Hudson had no answer for Haye in the post, and they failed to adjust their defense in the second half, leaving the corner open for jumpers all night.  

As the fourth quarter began, each possession made it more evident that the Bluehawks were just outmatched.  The exclamation point came when Catskill came up with a loose ball, and set up a textbook alley-oop for Fernandez to slam it home, sending the home crowd into a frenzy. 

Credit to Hudson for continuing to fight for points as the clock wore on, though it was too late to mount a comeback from such a large deficit. The time had slipped away and the game with it, much to the disappointment of 30-point loss for Hudson, 89-59.

Hudson coach Shawn Briscoe said after the game that “miscommunication and misplays” were the errors that contributed to the margin widening the way that it did,after a competitive first half. 

As for Catskill coach Doug Lampman, his coaching turned into more of a hands-off method as the game progressed. 

“Over the last 25 years I’ve learned, they’re not listening to me, they’re going to have to go with their instinct,” Lampman said with a laugh, “but I thought we settled into our game in the second half.  We started to do the things we were capable of doing, we took away their advantages, and it broke our way in the third quarter which was nice.”

Catskill hosts Maple Hill and Hudson will be home as well on Friday when Chatham comes to the Bluehawks’ court.  

HUDSON (59): Hedgepeth 7-1-17, Maines 1-1-3, Anderson 4-0-9, Griffin 7-2-16, Romano 3-0-6, Gorman 2-0-6, Alexander 1-0-2. Totals 25-4-59.

3-pointers: Hedgepeth 2, Gorman 2, Anderson.

CATSKILL (89): Christian 2-3-7, Johnson 8-0-18, Fernandez 11-5-28, Lowe-Scott 1-0-2, Scott 1-0-2, Haye 15-1-32. Totals 38-9-89.

3-pointers: Johnson 2, Fernandez, Haye.