A sprained ankle would not stand in the way of another chance for him to do just that.

White led the way as the Fredonia Hillbillies registered an ever-so-familiar result against the Dunkirk Marauders on Friday night, with a 75-54 win at Dunkirk High School. White had a team-high 22 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in the win.

“Everybody thought I wasn’t playing because I got injured last week,” White said. “Coming into this game, my mentality was to just play ball, have fun. It was my last rivalry night, my senior year, playing in Dunkirk, I’m going to give it my all every day. They got it all, 110%.”

White suffered the injury in a game eight days prior to Friday’s game in Dunkirk. The Hillbillies later lost that game and the following game this past Tuesday by a total of four points. But Friday, White was back, and he made sure that his career as a varsity basketball and football star at his new school ended without a single loss to the place he once called home.

OBSERVER Photo by Ashleigh Brown Dunkirk’s Greg Orcutt attempts to get by Fredonia’s Luca Gullo during Friday’s CCAA Division 1 West boys basketball game at Dunkirk High School.

Fredonia (10-6, 4-3) did not have an easy time the entire game on Friday, however, as Dunkirk (4-8, 3-4) responded to an early 6-2 hole with a pair of 3-pointers — by Greg Orcutt Jr. and K’Vion Tell — to take an 8-6 lead just past the halfway point of the opening quarter.

“You’ve got to expect that. What a great environment for these athletes to play in, to look back down the road and say they were part of something really special,” Fredonia head coach Nick Bertrando said. “Not every gym looks like this. We’re the fortunate and lucky enough ones that we get to experience this twice a year. It’s just a great atmosphere; it’s too bad that every athlete doesn’t have the opportunity to play in front of a gym with such excited, passionate fans on both sides.”

The home Dunkirk crowd’s thunderous applause to the early run was only rivaled the pregame ceremony to honor the school with a banner for its efforts with Unified sports. Dunkirk kept the energy high with four more points in the next two minutes to extend the Marauders’ lead to 12-8, then the lead grew to 17-11 with just under two minutes left. Dunkirk led 17-15 after the first quarter.

“We played hard at the start of the game,” Dunkirk head coach Sixto Rosario said. “I think we really played hard throughout. The outcome wasn’t what we wanted it to be … but we’ll be OK.”

Fredonia punched back immediately to start the second quarter. An 8-0 run over the first 1:04 of the period put the Hillbillies ahead 23-17. Fredonia never relinquished that lead, which grew to 38-28 at halftime, then ballooned with a 12-3 run to start the third quarter. Fredonia led by double digits for the entire second half, and led by at least 20 points for the majority of the fourth quarter.

OBSERVER Photo by Ashleigh Brown Fredonia’s RJ Koopman looks to score as Dunkirk’s Malik McCall attempts to block his shot.

The victory on Friday solidified that Fredonia came out on top in both varsity basketball contests against Dunkirk, not only in boys basketball, but in girls basketball as well. The Fredonia girls won 48-12 over Dunkirk on Thursday.

White will graduate this summer having never lost to Dunkirk in either boys basketball or football. He can also boast that not a single one of his Fredonia teammates in the gym on Friday — even the visiting Fredonia graduate Ethan Fry — ever lost to Dunkirk in a varsity football or boys basketball game.

“It feels amazing, especially because this is my hometown; I grew up here. It means a lot to me to show it to all these people that obviously probably hate me now because I left; to prove to them that I moved for a reason, to get better at my athletics,” White said.

In addition to White’s game-high 22 points, Mike Hahn had 15 points for the Hillbillies. Four other Fredonia players scored, including R.J. Koopman with 11 points. Luca Gullo, Malachi Hall and Ashton Putney each had 9 points.

“I’ve said it all along, if we can get three or four guys in double figures, it’s going to lead to success down the road. It makes it difficult for other teams to key in and really focus on somebody,” Bertrando said.

Dunkirk was led by Greg Orcutt Jr., who had 22 points, while K’Vion Tell had 19 points. Jareese Gaines added 8 points for the Marauders, all in the first half, including a pair of 3-pointers.

“They just play hard all the time. They don’t give up, they continue to play,” Rosario said.

Next up, Dunkirk plays a nonleague game Sunday night at SUNY Fredonia, then another nonleague game Monday at John F. Kennedy High School, before returning to league play on Tuesday at Salamanca.

“We’ve got plenty of time to fix where we’re at,” Rosario said. “We’ll be back next year to make our mark in this rivalry. We’ll be OK.”

The Hillbillies hope Friday’s victory, coming off a three-game losing streak, will set them up for a strong finish to the year heading into the postseason. Fredonia hosts Southwestern on Tuesday, then hosts Salamanca on Friday.

“We’ve had a little bit of a rough patch here at the end of January, but we talked about the start of February … we understand that we’re getting to the summit. We get to the point where it’s playoff time, it’s the excitement, and all of that time and work you’ve spent, now is where you really want everything to come together for a playoff run,” Bertrando said.

White said, “This sets up in a really great position to start working harder, to start pushing forward so we get to Buff State again.”

FREDONIA (75)

Hahn 6 0 15, Ferguson 0 0 0, Dowdy 0 0 0, Gullo 4 1 9, Quinn 0 0 0, Koopman 3 5 11, Field 0 0 0, Putney 4 0 9, Hall 3 3 9, White 8 3 22, Lincoln 0 0 0, Luce 0 0 0. Totals 28 12 75.

DUNKIRK (54)

Tell 7 4 19, Gaines 3 0 8, Gutierrez 0 0 0, Santiago 0 0 0, McCall 0 0 0, Sellers 0 0 0, Strong 0 0 0, Orcutt 9 0 22, Denson 0 0 0, Krystofiak 1 1 3, Paz 0 0 0, Morales 0 0 0, Zentz 1 0 2. Totals 21 5 54.

3-point goals–Hahn 3, Putney, White 3, Tell, Gaines 2, Orcutt 4.

Fredonia 15 23 17 20 — 75

Dunkirk 17 11 18 18 — 54