OBSERVER Staff Report

MAYVILLE — The Fredonia Hillbillies gave the Chautauqua Lake Thunderbirds (5-3, 2-1) all they could handle Thursday night in a CCAA 1 East boys high school basketball contest.

In the end, it was not enough as the Thunderbirds prevailed, 72-59.

After trailing 18-14 after the opening eight minutes, Fredonia trailed just 32-30 at halftime. However, from there, the Thunderbirds used a 21-10 third-quarter run to essentially put the game away.

“The third quarter was huge,” Chautauqua Lake coach Michael Putney said.

Leading the charge was Devin Pope, who scored 10 of his game-high 34 points in the third stanza.

“He is really what got us going,” Putney said, before raving about jayvee call-up Zach Martin. “He played really well and hit a big 3-pointer at the buzzer of the second quarter.”

The Hillbillies cut the deficit to nine points in the fourth quarter thanks to Nate Shuart and Tyler Putney.

Shuart had 12 of his 24 points in the final eight minutes while Putney connected on a pair of treys.

However, Pope put the game away with 11 points.

“It was a good game,” coach Putney said. “It was good for all my guys. We got everyone in and saw a lot of good from everyone. With Zach Martin coming up and giving us a boost is nice for a call-up.

“Fredonia plays some really good competition,” Putney noted. “(Fredonia coach) Greg Lauer does a great job. He always gets his team to play intense. They had some turnovers that hurt them. That’s hard to come back from sometimes. They hung in there in the first half. They are a team that will get some wins.”

Nate Adams contributed in the win with 18 points while Pope also had 11 rebounds, four assists and nine steals. Collin Wood had 10 boards in the win while Tyler Majka had five steals.

For Fredonia, Putney finished with 11 points.

Chautauqua Lake returns to action Saturday in the Jamestown Showcase against Maple Grove at 5:45 at McElrath Gymnasium.