The Fredonia Hillbillies fell a win shy of a sectional title game berth, with a 53-46 loss to City Honors in a Section VI, Class B1 boys basketball semifinal game at Buffalo State College on Tuesday night.

“It’s bittersweet. When you have seniors that you’ve coached in JV and you’ve seen them grow up, it’s tough,” said Bertrando after Tuesday’s loss. “It’s not about basketball anymore. It’s about the relationships you’ve made with these guys and the battles you’ve fought — the battles you’ve won and the battles you’ve lost. I wouldn’t trade these guys for anybody. I really wouldn’t.”

Fredonia (14-9, 9-seed) came in off a pair of playoff victories last week, highlighted by a dominant performance against No. 1 Medina. The Hillbillies were locked in a tight game after the first quarter of that game, and on Tuesday it was a similar story.

City Honors (19-3, 4-seed) got six straight points from its leading scorer on the year, Jaden Slaughter, to take a 6-2 lead, then held the lead the rest of the frame. As Fredonia’s Nate Shuart missed a layup at the final buzzer of the first quarter, City Honors led 12-11 after the frame. Slaughter scored all 12 points for City Honors in the period.

OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Fredonia’s Keith Piper (32) brings the ball up the court during the Hillbillies Class B2 semifinal game against City Honors at Buffalo State College on Tuesday night.

“You play in this arena, the first couple minutes — maybe even the first quarter — can be a little nerve-wracking,” said Bertrando. “Ultimately, Slaughter, when he got that first one to drop, he got hot. He had that mindset where he could do it.”

Fredonia’s Shuart once again had a chance to claim the lead for Fredonia, at the free-throw line early in the second quarter, but he missed the pair from the line. The City Honors Centaurs held the lead through the first two minutes of scoreless play in the second quarter. With 5:40 left in the first half, Fredonia’s Brayden Myers hit a pair from the free-throw line to take a 13-12 lead. Fredonia got layups on its next two possessions — each from freshman Nick Whitfield — to hold a 17-14 lead with close to three minutes remaining in the half.

Shortly after Fredonia took the 17-14 advantage, Slaughter — who accounted for all 14 points for the Centaurs to that point — picked up his third foul and headed to the bench. Fredonia had its chance to pull away if it put together a sizable second quarter run, like in the Hillbillies’ last game. Sadly for the boys in orange, that run never came — at least not for Fredonia. City Honors scored nine points in the final 1:35 of the second quarter, on a pair of 3-pointers from Kevion Taylor and an and-one jump shot by Amir Radford. The Centaurs outscored Fredonia 9-2 over the final two minutes of the first half and led 23-19 at the break.

“On our end, when a high profile player and scorer exits the game like that, we failed to capitalize on that,” said Bertrando.

Through the first half of the third quarter, Shuart did his best to bring the Hillbillies back, but City Honors would not give in. Shuart scored six of Fredonia’s seven points at the halfway mark of the third quarter, but the Centaurs still led by three, 29-26. City Honors scored the next seven points to extend the lead to double digits for the largest lead of the game, 36-26. Fredonia closed the quarter with the game’s next six points, to trail by just four points as the fourth quarter commenced.

Quickly, Fredonia was right back in it. Only 65 seconds into the fourth quarter, Fredonia cut the deficit to just a point, 37-36. However, the Hillbillies just couldn’t find what it took to reclaim the lead. City Honors led by three with 5:23 left, then extended the lead up to eight points later in the period. Then, the Centaurs’ lead was cut back down to four points with a minute to go in the contest. At the end, Fredonia struggled to execute in the final minute of the game. City Honors eluded Fredonia’s attempt to foul intentionally to drain key seconds off the clock and even grabbed a key offensive rebound after a missed free-throw on the Centaurs’ offensive end.

“At the end of the day, it was our miscues,” said Bertrando. “We had some turnovers and some uncharacteristic things that we haven’t done that ultimately came back to haunt us in the end. … We seemed to hang on to it too long. There were multiple opportunities where I thought the guy who had the ball should have tried to make a move and score, but they were trying to make the extra pass — which has been a great characteristic for us all year — but in that moment, you’ve kind of gotta take the bull by the horns.”

After 14 in the first half, Slaughter matched his total in the second half to finish with a game-high 28 points. Taylor added 17 for City Honors, with 11 in the second half.

“We knew Slaughter was a guy who could fill up the basket in a lot of different ways,” said Bertrando. “We were trying to keep him in front and try to make every shot he took contested and out of his range. He’s a very nice player and when you have (an opponent with) those kind of skills and that range, sometimes it doesn’t work out in your favor.”

For Fredonia, the freshman Whitfield led the game with 12 points. He also had five rebounds. Fredonia was hurt by 25 turnovers as a team on Tuesday.

Fredonia had seven seniors see their careers come to an end on Tuesday — Shuart, Myers, Ka’Rim Levens, Keith Piper, Owen Nicosia, Parker Rivera and Raziel Pearl. Shuart finished with 11 points and five points, while Myers had nine points and 11 rebounds. Levens had seven points, three assists and two rebounds, while Piper had three points, three assists and four rebounds.

“The relationships I’ve been able to build with each and every one of these guys, including the seniors who will be departing … it’s tough,” said Bertrando. “You build that relationship with them and it’s fun, it’s exciting — but now it’s over.”

Twitter: @bradencarmen