Dunkirk Lady Marauders girls basketball:

After last week’s dominant victory in Fredonia, the Dunkirk Lady Marauders looked to be one of the best teams in the area. This week, they get the chance to prove it. Dunkirk hosts the Southwestern Lady Trojans at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Dunkirk High School, in a matchup with the defending league champions from a year ago. Southwestern (7-5) comes in with a very deceiving record, after scheduling one of the toughest non-league schedules in all of Western New York. In Southwestern’s latest game, on Thursday night, the Lady Trojans won at previously-unbeaten Maple Grove, 46-37. Southwestern is also one of the only teams in the area to have a player averaging even more points per game than Dunkirk’s Nadara Odell. Southwestern star Erin Radack is currently in the top five in all of Section VI in scoring, at over 23 points per game. To make things even more interesting, Dunkirk coach Ken Ricker coached Radack as the head coach of the Jamestown Elite travel basketball team. No one knows better than Ricker what a challenge Radack will present to the Lady Marauders.

As challenging as Southwestern will be tonight for Dunkirk, the only challenge that may be even tougher than the Lady Trojans will come on Thursday for the Lady Marauders in Olean. The Lady Huskies of Olean have a 9-0 record so far this season, led by the second leading scorer in all of Section VI in Sara Pfieffer. Pfieffer averages over 30 points per game this season, making her return to Western New York for her senior season after spending a year in Arizona. Between Radack and Pfieffer, Dunkirk faces perhaps its toughest tests all season long this week. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Lady Marauders stack up against the best in the class.

Westfield Wolverines boys basketball:

OBSERVER File Photo Dunkirk’s Jessica Beehler brings the ball up-court during last week’s game against Fredonia at FHS.

After a big win over Falconer on Friday night in Westfield, the Wolverines sit at 5-0 in the division. But CCAA’s Division 2 West has been run by the Sherman Wildcats for many years. This week, Westfield looks to change the narrative this season.

Westfield heads to Sherman on Tuesday to face the only team in the division the Wolverines have not already beaten this year. After a 2-2 start to the season because of a pair of losses to Chautauqua Lake, the Westfield Wolverines have won seven of the last eight games, with only a 76-65 loss to Maple Grove in Erie in the loss column. Westfield is a game ahead of Clymer in the division standings, and two games ahead of Sherman and Panama, leading into Tuesday’s contest. Westfield can loudly announce itself as the favorite in the division with a win in Sherman on Tuesday.

But it doesn’t end there for Westfield this week. The Wolverines face another challenge on the road within the division on Thursday night, when the Wolverines head to Brocton to face their rival, the Brocton Bulldogs. The first time the two teams met, on Dec. 11 in Westfield, Brocton held what looked to be a double-digit lead heading into halftime, before Evan Hauser drilled a buzzer-beating shot from half-court to end the half with all the momentum. From that point on, Hauser and the Wolverines couldn’t miss, and ran away with the game by a score of 61-48. Coming off a tough matchup with Sherman on Tuesday, win or lose, Westfield needs to keep its focus on Thursday to come away on top of the Bulldogs once again.

Twitter: @bradencarmen