But the night belonged to the Marauders’ Greg Orcutt Jr.

Dunkirk’s senior leader was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 5:22 left in the second quarter and with his first free throw reached the 1,000-point milestone for his career as the Marauders beat Frewsburg 59-45 in nonleague boys basketball at Dunkirk High School.

Orcutt added the following two free throws and 5 more points to finish his night with 16 points, 34 shy of Robert Nalepa’s school record.

“Greg has been in my programs from Fellowship of Christian Athletes to the Salvation Army since he was younger. Just to see him grow has been amazing,” Dunkirk head coach Sixto Rosario said. “He’s going to be a tough one to see go because he’s been around. I’m proud of him.”

OBSERVER Photo by Ashleigh Brown Orcutt and teammates celebrate after Orcutt scored the 1,000th point of his career on a second-quarter free throw.

Nineteen of Tell’s 29 points came during a 37-19 first half for Dunkirk (8-12).

“KV, if he continues his pace, he’ll be the next 1,000-point scorer,” Rosario said. “He’s been a key to our program. He and Greg work together and feed off each other. They bring a lot of good energy.”

The Marauders opened the game on a 13-0 run with Tell scoring 8 and Orcutt adding 5. During that time, the Bears were 0 for 7 from the field and turned the ball over three times.

“We had some good looks that we usually hit that we missed,” Frewsburg head coach Kyle Nelson said of the Bears, who didn’t make a field goal until Max Fisher scored with 1:47 left in the first quarter. “We went 1 of 8 from the line and flattened on offense.”

In the second quarter, Frewsburg turned the ball over eight times, which led to 15 points for Dunkirk.

Submitted Photo Dunkirk’s Greg Orcutt Jr., right, is pictured with Marauders head coach Sixto Rosario after scoring his 1,000th career point during Thursday’s nonleague boys basketball game against Frewsburg at Dunkirk High School.

“They’re an athletic group that is going to speed you up. We didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball and slowing the game down,” Nelson said. “We wanted to use more clock, but we didn’t get enough shots up in the second quarter.”

Armed with a 37-19 halftime lead, Rosario chose to work through his bench in the final regular-season game before the postseason. Senior Juan Paz scored his first 5 points of the season, including a 3-pointer.

“In the second quarter we pulled away. I felt like we played hard,” Rosario said. “We were just looking to keep pushing so we could get other guys opportunities to play.”

The Marauders led 51-29 entering the fourth quarter, but actually gave the Bears an opportunity to get back in the game, sending them to the free-throw line six times in the fourth quarter, at one point on five straight possessions. But Frewsburg was unable to capitalize, going just 13 of 30 in the game.

“We’ve known all year that we have to focus on knocking down our free throws, especially in close games against good teams,” Nelson said. “We have to change that come playoff time if we want to make a run and win some games.”

OBSERVER Photo by Ashleigh Brown Dunkirk’s K’Vion Tell, left, and Malik McCall, right, surround Frewsburg’s Trent Lewis during Thursday’s nonleague boys basketball game at Dunkirk High School.

Next up for both teams will be the postseason. Seedings will be finalized Saturday, but Frewsburg should be the No. 5 seed in Class C and host No. 12 Brocton. Dunkirk is the No. 11 seed in Class A2 and will likely travel to No. 6 Lewiston-Porter.

“We’ve figured things out and we’ve just been pushing them. There are a lot of positives with the guys,” Rosario said. “They’ve really never lost sight of going deep in the playoffs and making this finishing run here. They’ve always had it. We’ve lost a lot of close games. We’ve had to learn how to finish games. The last three games we’ve done that.”

NOTES: Dunkirk went 24 of 61 from the field, including 6 of 19 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 15 times. … Kael Collver had 13 points for Frewsburg, which shot 15 of 47 from the field, including 2 of 13 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 17 times.

FREWSBURG (45)

Signorino 0 0 0, Lewis 0 2 2, Weaver 2 2 6, Hultberg 2 0 4, Eckert 1 1 3, Fisher 3 0 7, Laska 1 0 2, JCollver 1 6 8, KCollver 5 2 13. Totals 15 13 45.

DUNKIRK (59)

Tell 13 0 29, McQuiggan 0 0 0, Bache 0 0 0, McCall 1 0 2, Gutierrez 0 0 0, Martucci 1 1 3, Strong 0 0 0, Orcutt 5 4 16, Krystofiak 1 0 2, Denson 1 0 2, Paz 2 0 5, Morales 0 0 0, Cheverez 0 0 0. Totals 24 5 59.

3-point goals–Fisher, KCollver, Tell 3, Orcutt 2, Paz.

Frewsburg 7 12 10 16 — 45

Dunkirk 19 18 14 8 — 59