The two teams met again on Friday night at the Frewsburg Holiday Tournament and it came down to the wire again.

After hitting a clutch free throw to send the game to overtime, Falconer junior Roger Markham had another big play left in him. With 8.2 seconds left, the Golden Falcons worked down the floor giving Markham just enough time to dribble through a crowd of defenders and float in the game-winning shot at the buzzer for a 71-69 win.

“We’ve played a lot of overtime this year,” Falconer head coach Jordan Goold said. “A lot of close games this year and we found ourselves on the losing side of two. We pulled one out against Olean last week and this one was a little bit tighter down the stretch. It felt really good to finally hit a buzzer-beater, because we’ve had a couple that rimmed out or missed out. We’ve had our opportunities and tonight we seized our chance and that was a beautiful thing to see.”

Markham’s 32 points were a game-high and one more than his previous total against Dunkirk, but it wasn’t until his teammates supported the cause that the Golden Falcons had a chance.

Falconer’s Roger Markham goes in for a layup against Frewsburg during the first game of the Frewsburg Holiday Tournament on Friday at Frewsburg Middle/High School. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms

“Roger is an unbelievable player,” Goold said. “Three-level scorer, but the next level of his game that he’s going to figure out this year is getting the others involved because when the others are involved the game will be easier for us and for him. When we made our run it’s when that supporting cast stepped up and the supporting cast is more than good enough to step up. They did their job tonight, gotta be better on defense, but they did everything right.”

Dunkirk jumped out to an early lead and it was K’Vion Tell and Greg Orcutt leading the way for the Marauders with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Falconer trailed 34-26 at halftime and the team quickly erased the deficit with big buckets from Max Parmentier, Nate Bailey, Dom Delaney and Markham.

The Falconer (4-3, 2-2 CCAA 1) defense also did its job as Dunkirk was limited to single-digits in the third quarter, but managed to get out of that funk in the fourth quarter to force overtime.

In overtime it became a battle between Tell and Orcutt versus Markham. It was Markham with the final possession and he made it count, sinking his 10th point of overtime for the 71-69 victory.

Chautauqua Lake’s Nick Jacobson attempts to block a shot attempt by Frewsburg’s Trent Lewis during the second game of the Frewsburg Holiday Tournament. Photo courtesy of Steve Garvey

“We lost by one last time and won by two this time,” Goold said about playing Dunkirk close. “I imagine it’s going to be the same exact way, it’s going to be even more fiery.”

Falconer’s victory booked a spot in the final today against Chautauqua Lake at 8 p.m. Dunkirk (2-3, 1-1 CCAA 1) will play Frewsburg in the 4 p.m. consolation game.

KLOSSNER POWERS EAGLES

FREWSBURG — Brendan Klossner scored a game-high 18 points for Chautauqua Lake, but his fifth foul came with little over a minute remaining and only a narrow lead against Frewsburg.

Nick Jacobson struggled to hit buckets since his hot first quarter, but when Klossner exited the game, Jacobson rose to the occasion with a field goal and a couple of clutch free throws to send Chautauqua Lake past Frewsburg 54-50.

A slow second quarter by Frewsburg allowed Chautauqua Lake to take the lead by halftime and it looked like the Eagles would pull away in the second half. But then the Eagles ran into shooting troubles and Frewsburg clawed back in.

The Bears were led by Trent Lewis with 14 points, four assists and three steals; Max Fisher scored 13 points with four rebounds; Kael Collver added 10 points, nine rebounds and four steals; and Blake Weaver collected 10 rebounds and had two blocked shots.

Frewsburg’s effort came up short as Jacobson closed the door finishing with 16 points, three rebounds and two steals. Along with Klossner’s 18 points, he had five rebounds and three steals. Yazan Abuhmedian grabbed six rebounds, Trent Houser had five steals and Nate Henry dealt out three assists.

Chautauqua Lake (4-2, 3-1 CCAA 2) will play Falconer in tonight’s championship, a rematch of the first game of the year in which the Golden Falcons won 62-58.

Frewsburg (1-4) plays Dunkirk in today’s consolation game.

FALCONER 71, DUNKIRK 69 (OT)

FALCONER (71)

Delaney 3 0 7, RMarkham 12 8 32, Carlson 1 0 3, Parmentier 6 0 12, Bailey 6 0 15, Maher 0 0 0, Wood 0 0 0, ZMarkham 1 0 2. Totals 29 8 71.

DUNKIRK (69)

Tell 10 2 26, McQuigan 0 1 1, Paz 1 0 3, Orcutt 9 2 26, Strong 2 1 5, McCall 1 0 2, Krystofiak 3 0 6. Totals 26 6 69.

3-point goals–Delaney, Carlson, Bailey 3, Tell 4, Paz, Orcutt 6.

Falconer 14 14 18 15 10 — 71

Dunkirk 15 19 7 20 8 — 69

CHAUTAUQUA LAKE 54, FREWSBURG 50

CHAUTAUQUA LAKE (54)

Jacobson 5 2 16, Henry 2 2 6, Fairbank 0 2 2, Rivera 1 0 2, JAbuhmedian 1 0 3, Houser 2 1 5, YAbuhmedian 1 0 2, Klossner 8 0 18. Totals 20 7 54.

FREWSBURG (50)

Signorino 0 0 0, Lewis 6 0 14, Weaver 3 2 8, Eckert 0 0 0, Fisher 5 0 13, Laska 1 1 3, JCollver 1 0 2, KCollver 4 2 10. Totals 20 5 50.

3-point goals–Jacobson 4, JAbuhmedian, Klossner 2, Lewis 2, Fisher 3.

Chautauqua Lake 16 14 10 14 — 54

Frewsburg 17 9 12 12 — 50