Trailing by one, the Thunderbirds drew up a play to take the lead, but the Marauders foiled the attempt and an Earl Stewart rebound led to a full court pass to Carlito Villafane who put in an easy layup to help seal Dunkirk’s eventual 70-63 victory and gave them their first CCAA Division 1 West league win in the last two seasons.

“I think the team played hard,” Dunkirk Captain Earl Stewart said about his team. “They hustled… in practice we work hard on everything.”

The visiting Thunderbirds got off to a hot start, powered by Nate Adams in his second game since returning from injury. Nate Adams was a force to deal with down low in the paint and stymied the Marauders defense as he scored nine points in the first quarter.

“He was out for the first five games,” Chautauqua Lake head coach Alex Reyda said about Nate Adams. “We just got him back at Nichols and he’s a team leader. He’s been playing varsity since his sophomore year, so he’s needed. We were trying to improve without him, but getting him helps. He gets a lot of rebounds and he can score inside.”

Chautauqua Lake’s Nate Adams (23) goes up for a layup during Friday’s game against the Dunkirk Marauders in Dunkirk. OBSERVER Photo by Justin Goetz.

Chautauqua Lake established a 10 point lead after going on a 10 point run, making the score 16-6 early in the first and Dunkirk took a well needed timeout to solve the defensive issues. After the timeout, the Marauders outscored the Thunderbirds in the quarter, but still trailed 20-14 after one.

“I think it was the Frewsburg game we were down by nine points. We came back and won the championship so I think that’s what it was,” said Stewart, noting Dunkirk’s proven ability to come back from a deficit.

The Marauders defensive adjustments were clear after the timeout as they did a much better job covering Nate Adams, after his nine point first quarter, the Marauders limited him to just one more bucket.

“We had the brothers of Davon Kubasik and Donny Lockett, they guarded Adams the entire game,” Dunkirk head coach Luke Gullo said about his defensive gameplan. “It was their job… nothing else mattered, but trying to make his job a little bit harder. They rose to the challenge and hats off to them.”

While the Marauders defense started to lock it down, the offense too began to start hitting shots that were missed earlier. Dunkirk’s offensive outburst was powered by Stewart.

Dunkirk’s A’Marion Tell (33) attempts a shot contested by Chautauqua Lake’s Alex Godfrey during Friday’s CCAA West 1 division boys basketball game at Dunkirk High School. OBSERVER Photo by Justin Goetz.

Stewart hit the first two shots of the second quarter for the Marauders from downtown to get within two points, 22-20. As Stewart began to hit his shots, the rest of Marauders began to heat up as Peter Paredes, Devon Kubasik and Villafane all hit shots from downtown in the quarter.

“We have a lot of skilled kids and getting them all to be confident in their shots is so important,” stated Coach Gullo. “Earl is our leading scorer and he garners so much attention, so that when we get other folks that can knock down a pressure three… it’s a matchup nightmare.”

At the end of the half Dunkirk had a narrow lead 37-36, despite trailing by double-digits halfway through the first quarter.

The Marauders maintained the momentum in the second half as they came out scoring a quick two baskets to go up, 41-36, and forced a Chautauqua Lake timeout. The timeout saw Nate Adams get back on the scoresheet, but it did not slow down the Marauders as Stewart and Couser hit quick back to back three’s off T’Bird turnovers to get another timeout from the Thunderbirds.

After the second timeout, it appeared the Thunderbirds settled down a little bit as they only let the Marauders’ lead get to a maximum of 10 at 50-40. At that point, Chautauqua Lake began to chip away at the Dunkirk lead.

Dunkirk held a five point lead headed into the fourth quarter, 53-48.

In the fourth quarter, Chautauqua Lake finally saw Luke Waters step up and hit two big 3-pointers as they closed the deficit.

“Our record doesn’t really speak to their effort,” stated Coach Reyda. “They don’t give up on the court. They always play hard until the end, so I am proud of them for that.”

The Thunderbirds got the deficit to one with 47 seconds left in the defensive fourth quarter, 64-63, and called a timeout to draw up a play to try and take back the lead.

“Either get Nate Adams a shot when he was using the first screen or to get Luke Waters a shot off the three, because he started to get hot,” Was the Thunderbirds gameplan according to Coach Reyda.

The Thunderbirds could not seal the deal and the always reliable Stewart was there to come up with the rebound and send a full court pass to Villafane that ultimately sealed the game and gave Dunkirk its first league win in two seasons.

Stewart led the Marauders statistically with 24 points, Villafane added 13, Christian Ortiz had 12 and Paredes scored 11. Stewart, Villafane and Paredes all hit three 3-pointers and the only Marauder not to make a shot from downtown was Ortiz who spent his time in the paint.

“Carlito Villafane had another couple three’s tonight,” Coach Gullo stated about Villafane. “He is special. He doesn’t know how good he can be. He’s the first kid into practice everyday, he gets up hundreds of shots after practice. You can go down to School 7 in the summer, Carlito is down there all by himself shooting.”

The T’birds effort was led by Nate Adams with 21 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double and Waters had 12 points.

The Marauders are next in action on Tuesday when they host Southwestern and the Thunderbirds host Allegany-Limestone on the same day.