That didn’t happen.

The Eagles outscored Dunkirk 19-2 in the third quarter to pull well out of reach on their way to a 55-23 nonleague victory at Dunkirk High School.

Dunkirk (4-3) played a competitive first quarter, as Molly DiCara evened the score at 7-7 on a layup with 2:14 left to play in the period. She then added a free throw shortly afterward to put the Marauders ahead by a point. Isabella Stull finished the quarter with a last-second layup for the visiting Eagles (6-2) to take the lead 9-8 after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, each team scored a pair in the first 30 seconds of action, but from that point, the next four minutes belonged to the Eagles. Lake Shore pulled ahead 21-10 on a 10-0 run.

OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Dunkirk’s Molly DiCara (12) follows through on a 3-point shot during Friday’s nonleague girls basketball game at Dunkirk High School against the Lake Shore Eagles.

Brooke Szymczak put an end to the Lake Shore run with a jump shot that bounced off the very top of the backboard and in. Then, in the final second of the first half, DiCara beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to cut the Lake Shore advantage to single digits at the intermission 23-16.

“I loved it, it was great,” Dunkirk head coach Quinn Bankoski said of the first half. “It was a winnable game.”

But then, rather than the momentum carrying over into the second half, the Marauders came out flat and were blown out in the third quarter. Lake Shore began with an 8-0 run in less than three minutes of action, followed by an 11-0 run to cap off the period, only separated by a bucket from Szymczak with 5:07 left on the clock in the quarter.

With a 42-18 lead after the third quarter, Dunkirk turned to its bench for a good portion of the fourth quarter and received five points in return. Lianna Hernandez and Ashley Collazo each made a shot in the fourth quarter, while Ema Pacheco hit a free throw. Collazo was the team’s leading scorer on Friday with 7 points.

“I definitely learned that there’s some other players on the team that can actually step up when we need them to,” Bankoski said.

Lake Shore managed 13 points in the fourth quarter, including 9 points from Layla Jimerson. The second half scoring was 32-7 in favor of Lake Shore.

Of the four Lake Shore players to reach double-digit scoring, Chasity LeRoy led the way with 15 points. Jimerson had 11 points for the Eagles, while Liz Jarzynski and Lucie Scarpine each had 10 points.

DiCara, Dunkirk’s leading scorer on the season, managed 17 points in three quarters on Wednesday, followed by a scoreless fourth quarter as her team gave up the lead and eventually lost, 39-31. DiCara scored 6 points in the first half on Friday, but had a scoreless second half in another loss. Shyla Karin, Dunkirk’s second leading scorer on the season, was held scoreless on Friday.

“It’s just really crazy how, with one person, when she doesn’t show up, everybody else just feeds off of it,” Bankoski said of her team’s reliance on DiCara as a scoring threat. “We just need to work harder as a team and work on building our momentum all together.”

Friday’s game was indicative of the Dunkirk season so far — after a strong start, things took a dramatic turn later. The Marauders won their first four games of the season, but after a fourth-quarter collapse against Silver Creek on Wednesday and Friday’s second-half blowout loss, the Dunkirk record now sits at 4-3.

“I’m hoping whatever we’re going through, we can get through and get moving on, because everything after this is all league games, and that’s what counts,” Bankoski said.

Up next, the Marauders host Southwestern on Tuesday before a showdown with rival Fredonia on Friday in Dunkirk. The Eagles travel to Maryvale on Tuesday..

LAKE SHORE (55)

Jimmerson 0 0 0, Jarzynski 5 0 10, Bova 1 0 2, Jimerson 5 0 11, Scarpine 4 0 10, Colvin 2 1 5, Leroy 6 2 15, Stull 1 0 2. Totals 24 3 55.

DUNKIRK (23)

DiCara 2 1 6, Karin 0 0 0, Hernandez 1 0 2, Szymczak 2 0 4, Collazo 2 3 7, Rodriguez 0 1 1, EPacheco 1 1 3. Totals 7 6 23.

3-point goals–Jimerson, Scarpine 2, Leroy, DiCara.

Lake Shore 9 14 19 13 — 55

Dunkirk 8 8 2 5 — 23