From the start of Wednesday’s contest, it was evident the Marauders were keyed in on Whitfield and had no intentions of letting him throw down any dunks in their home gym.

Dunkirk succeeded in that endeavor, but Whitfield and the Hillbillies still got the last laugh as they secured the 70-45 Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 West victory.

“This game is not only important for playoffs and standings, but there’s a lot of pride that goes into this,” Fredonia head coach Nick Bertrando said. “You see people at this game that come to maybe one game a year, but this is the one they have circled and we had phenomenal fan support yet again.”

Fredonia did come away with the win and the season sweep of its longtime rivals, but it was not an easy feat.

OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms Dunkirk’s Marcel Carter attempts to dribble past Fredonia’s Nick Creeley during Wednesday’s CCAA Division 1 West boys basketball game at Dunkirk High School.

The Hillbillies were in hostile territory for Wednesday’s game and the Marauders played to that. No matter what the score was or when the basket was made, the Dunkirk crowd erupted with excitement and the players fed off of that.

“It was a tough loss to our rival, but man it was a great atmosphere,” Dunkirk head coach Sixto Rosario said. “It was good to see the big heads out there, all the posters. It’s great because that’s what we want to bring back to Dunkirk. We want the student body to come out and support the team.”

In the first matchup of the season, Fredonia had already pulled away by halftime, but this time Dunkirk fought to hang around. When Fredonia would get a little run, Dunkirk would respond shortly after, always trailing, but never letting the game get away.

What was working for Dunkirk was its hard on-ball defense and making every possession as difficult as possible. With the high-tempo, aggressive style of defense it could only work so well against a force like Whitfield.

“Ultimately, the way to defend that type of player, you might have to send a double-team or triple-team,” Rosario said. “He’s an athlete. He’s a tremendous player and he’s a good kid.”

OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms Fredonia’s Ethan Fry is surrounded by a host of Dunkirk defenders.

Despite the obvious attention payed to Whitfield, he still managed to score 31 points, grab 10 rebounds, dish three assists and deliver three blocked shots. Whitfield’s play in the paint opened up the game for Ethan Fry who drained five 3-pointers and scored 23 points while pulling down seven rebounds.

“We have to be able to score from a multitude of fashions,” Bertrando said about his offense. “We have to get multiple people being able to score. If you’re one-dimensional defenses can key in on that and the past couple of games I felt we have started to get more people involved.”

Dunkirk stayed with Fredonia until the fourth quarter when the fouls piled up too much. The Hillbillies led 46-32 going into the fourth, but the game was never out of reach for Dunkirk until its top scorer Marcel Carter fouled out. Shortly after Carter fouled out, Lorenzo Lewis picked up his last fouls and the lead was too much to ask from Dunkirk’s depth scorers.

Carter led Dunkirk with 14 points, three rebounds and two steals; and Lewis scored 12 and picked up three rebounds.

FREDONIA (70)

Hahn 0 0 0, Tabone 1 2 4, Field 0 0 0, KWhitfield 1 0 2, Fry 7 4 23, Quinn 0 0 0, Creeley 1 0 2, NWhitfield 11 9 31, Schrader 0 0 0, Hawk 1 1 3, Riddle 0 0 0, White 1 2 5. Totals 23 18 70.

DUNKIRK (45)

Carter 6 0 14, Tell 1 1 4, DeJesus 1 0 3, Lanski 0 1 1, Morrisroe 1 0 3, Couser 1 1 3, Terry 1 0 2, Lewis 4 3 12, Orcutt 0 0 0, Thomas 1 0 3. Totals 16 6 45.

3-point goals–Fry 5, White, Carter 2, Tell, DeJesus, Morrisroe, Lewis, Thomas.

Fredonia 18 15 13 24 — 70

Dunkirk 13 10 9 13 — 45