On Monday night, the Bears had to win a different way — with their defense.

Frewsburg held Silver Creek to 12-of-47 shooting from the field and forced the Black Knights into 21 turnovers en route to a 53-34 Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 East victory.

“Our focus was defense and rebounding. … We really made a focus of it the last couple of practices,” Frewsburg head coach Rob Collver said. “We had to zero in on defense and rebound the ball.”

Senior Connor Murray led the Bears (11-4, 6-2) with 14 points, five assists and four steals; junior Gavin Smith had 14 points, four rebounds and three steals; and senior Zack Carr had 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Silver Creek’s Matt Woleben beats Frewsburg’s Kelson Laska to a rebound in Monday’s game. OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman

“Silver Creek plays a tremendous 2-3 zone. It’s so hard to get clean shots off from 3-point range,” Collver said. “We had to find out how to penetrate that defense, get in there and get some 2-pointers off, not just 3-pointers.”

Senior Matt Woleben had 16 points and 13 rebounds to lead Silver Creek (10-5, 5-3), which was playing without Ray Cortes for the fourth straight game after its junior leading scorer was injured two weeks ago against Portville.

“Ray is a game changer. He’s a Player of the Year candidate. The way Andrew (LeBaron) played him last time was solid, but we can’t rely on that every time,” Collver said. “We had some special things planned to try, but those kind of went out the window. We’ll keep them in our back pocket.”

Frewsburg led by just two at halftime before taking control with a 10-0 third quarter during which the Black Knights went 0 of 14 from the field and turned the ball over eight times.

The Bears didn’t score until there were less than four minutes left in the period when Smith hit a 3-pointer. Two possessions later, Murray hit a 3-pointer of his own. Sophomore jayvee call-up Chase Haglund added a bucket and senior Kelson Laska, who was cleared to play just over a week ago after rehabbing a long-term knee injury, scored through contact late in the quarter to give their team a 12-point lead entering the final eight minutes.

“Toward the end of the season, guys are wearing down. … There is a wear and tear on your body,” Collver said. “Bringing Chase up allows us that third guard to rotate in and having Kelson with Caleb (Stahlman) and Andrew (LeBaron), those three can kind of rotate at the post position.”

Woleben made a 3-pointer with 6:06 remaining in the game to cut Silver Creek’s deficit to nine, but Carr answered with a 3-pointer at the other end of the floor and the Black Knights never got closer than 12 the rest of the way.

“Once we got warmed up, we hit some 3s that pulled us away,” Collver said. “That gives the boys a lot of confidence, but we really should’ve been trying for some more 2s in that 2-3 zone.”

Frewsburg will look to build on a three-game winning streak with another league game at Cassadaga Valley on Thursday.

Silver Creek, which has now lost two straight after a four-game winning streak, will look to rebound next Monday at home against the Cougars.

NOTES: Frewsburg shot 20 of 54 (37%) from the field, including 5 of 21 (23.8%) from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 11 times. LeBaron had 8 points and six rebounds for the Bears. … Silver Creek was 4 of 14 (28.6%) from 3-point range. Simon White had six rebounds, while Aidan Jamison had five rebounds and four assists for the Black Knights. … Frewsburg won the jayvee game 61-55. Blake Weaver led the Bears with 26 points and Taran Laska had 15. Brady Eich led the Black Knights with 19 points.

SILVER CREEK (34)

Dolce 0 0 0, League 0 0 0, Galfo 0 0 0, Parsell 1 0 2, Boothe 0 0 0, Steinwach 1 0 2, Farley 0 0 0, White 1 0 2, Jamison 2 1 6, Fiegl 1 0 3, Woleben 6 2 16, Miller 0 3 3, Kelly 0 0 0. Totals 12 6 34.

FREWSBURG (53)

Brink 0 0 0, Haglund 1 0 2, Carr 3 5 13, Smith 5 2 14, Spencer 0 0 0, Laska 1 0 2, Murray 6 1 14, Ramsey 0 0 0, Stahlman 0 0 0, LeBaron 4 0 8. Totals 20 8 53

3-point goals–Jamison, Fiegl, Woleben 2, Carr 2, Smith 2, Murray.

Silver Creek 12 11 0 11 — 34

Frewsburg 13 12 10 18 — 53

Jayvees: Frewsburg won 61-55.