As it turned out, Piper may have been shoved in the back, but it was Medina who got smacked in the mouth on Saturday afternoon.

The 9-seed Fredonia Hillbillies ran over the 1-seed Medina Mustangs, 59-40, on Saturday afternoon in a Section VI, Class B1 boys basketball quarterfinal game at Medina High School, sparked by a 17-2 Fredonia run from the point the technical foul was assessed over the next six minutes of action.

“Our coaches said they’ve always been believers of us, but now after this win, we’re believers in ourselves. That’s huge,” said Piper.

Fredonia (14-8, 9-seed) came out of the gates ready to play, as Brayden Myers drilled a 3-pointer for the game’s first points. Though Fredonia never trailed, the game was tight throughout the first quarter, with a 9-7 Fredonia lead in the final seconds of the frame. Owen Nicosia capped off the first quarter in style for the Hillbillies with a 3-pointer from the corner to give Fredonia a 12-7 lead after one period of play.

OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Fredonia’s Nate Shuart goes up for a layup as Medina’s Brian Fry chases him from behind during Saturday’s playoff game at Medina.

“They’re the No. 1 seed, so obviously they’re a really tough team. They brought the intensity from the start, but we were able to overcome it and not let it get into our heads,” said Piper. “The biggest difference in the game, I’d say, was being able to keep our heads cool, calm and collected.”

Throughout the first quarter, the home Medina crowd was barking at both the officials and the Hillbillies, seemingly having something bad to say about every action that took place on the court. It reached its boiling point just less than a minute into the second quarter, as Fredonia’s Piper looked to drive the lane in the offensive zone. The Medina defender fell to the court looking for a charge call that was deemed to be unwarranted, then Piper passed the ball down low in the post. The ball was kicked back out to Piper to attempt a 3-point shot, and as the Medina defender closed hard in an attempt to block the shot, both Piper and the Medina defender went tumbling into the front row of the stands. That’s when a Medina fan — who Piper fell into — shoved Piper off of him from behind. Medina was assessed a technical foul, without an explanation given to Fredonia’s bench as to what transpired. Nate Shuart calmly made the ensuing pair of free-throws and Fredonia led 14-7.

“When I took the corner 3, I missed it, but the guy closed out on me pretty hard — he had a few words with me earlier in the game. Something happened where I got tripped up, I don’t know what happened, all I know is I was on the ground pretty quick,” said Piper. “It was a huge turning point in the game for us. It was huge for us.”

From that point on, the seven-point margin was the closest the game ever got. Myers rattled in a 3-pointer to give the Hillbillies a double-digit lead and it stayed that way the rest of the game. From the first minute of the second quarter until the start of the final minute of the first half, Fredonia’s 17-2 run silenced the once-rowdy Medina crowd. Fredonia outscored Medina 17-5 in the second quarter to take a 29-12 lead into halftime, and at that point, the damage was done.

“The one thing I always tell my team is ‘I want you to play with emotion, but don’t play emotional.’ There is a very distinctive difference,” said Fredonia coach Nick Bertrando. “The emotion when we went on that 17-2 run really kind of propelled us, our fanbase, our bench. For our confidence, that was huge for us. That really put the air in our sails and ultimately put us in a great position to be successful.”

OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Fredonia’s Alec Schrader (20) celebrates with teammate Keith Piper in the Class B1 quarterfinal boys basketball playoff game at Medina High School between Fredonia and Medina.

Myers finished with a game-high 23 points on Saturday, along with seven rebounds. Shuart finished with 15 points of his own, while Piper had eight points, eight assists and five rebounds.

“Focus was the biggest part. With that tough crowd, you’ve got to dial in and knock down those tough shots,” said Myers of his performance on Saturday.

“We were fortunate enough today to play some of our best basketball of the year and execute to get the job done,” said Bertrando after Saturday’s win.

After a 7-15 season last year and an 8-15 record the year before, Fredonia now heads to Buffalo State College on Tuesday to face 4-seed City Honors in the Class B1 semifinals.

“It’s crazy, man. It’s everything,” said Myers of his team’s sectional semifinal appearance at Buffalo State set for Tuesday. “It’s my first time at Buff. State. Nate (Shuart) played at Buff. State his freshman year and got that blue patch — we’re going to try to get another one this year.”

Myers credits the work of Bertrando, Fredonia’s first year varsity head coach.

“Coach (Bertrando) tells us to bring it every day,” said Myers. “He puts so much work into this program and we’re just trying to give it back to him with this win. Buff. State, let’s go.”

Bertrando, as usual, deflected the credit back toward his team.

“It’s all about these guys,” said Bertrando. “At the beginning of the season, we talked about what our goals and aspirations were, what we’d like to do this year. One of the things we talked about was getting to Buff. State. When these kids were coming up as seventh, eighth graders, freshman and sophomores, they got to see the opportunity for Fredonia to play at Buff. State. Growing up and seeing that, you want to emulate that moving forward, and I can’t say enough how proud I am of these guys to stick with the plan and persevere.”

Tip-off of Tuesday’s game against City Honors is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. at Buffalo State College. Follow along on Twitter @bradencarmen and @TheObserverNY for updates throughout the game.