Fredonia’s Colin Luce attempts to get by Salamanca’s Avery Brown during Friday’s CCAA Division 1 boys basketball game at Fredonia High School. P-J photo by Ashleigh Brown

FREDONIA — A year ago, Salamanca suffered its toughest loss of the regular season when it traveled to Fredonia. The Hillbillies delivered a haymaker of a first half a year ago in one of the best shooting performances the program has seen in years.

History did not repeat itself Friday night.

While the Hillbillies were still ready for a fight, the Warriors were even more prepared for a battle this time around, and every time Fredonia delivered a blow, Salamanca punched back. When it was all said and done, the Warriors left Fredonia High School with a 60-51 win to clinch at least a share of the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 boys basketball regular-season championship.

“These are championship-level kids. We’ve got kids on our team that have been to states in multiple sports. They love big games, and this is what they get up for,” Salamanca head coach Adam Bennett said of his team and the effort it played with on Friday. “My favorite thing about them is they never back down.”

Salamanca (12-1, 9-0) made sure it would not suffer the same fate as last year’s contest on the same floor by starting out strong Friday night. The Warriors scored 15 of the first 20 points of the game to take an early double-digit lead.

Over the final 3:35 of the first quarter, Fredonia (8-7, 3-4) responded with seven of the next nine points to cut the deficit in half. In the second quarter, Salamanca answered with an 8-2 spurt to pull ahead 25-14. The defensive intensity of the Warriors left the Hillbillies spinning early on.

“That’s our identity. That’s what we’ve been playing like all year,” Bennett said. “We defend, rebound and run. We lean on that every game.”

All of a sudden, Fredonia remembered who it was, the only team to consistently pose a threat to the perennial powerhouse of Class B that Salamanca has become. The Hillbillies responded with a 10-0 run, paced by Luca Gullo and RJ Koopman, to pull to within a point. By the intermission, the two teams were deadlocked at 28-all.

“A lot of teams, when they get in that position against Salamanca … it tends to not bode well for them,” Fredonia head coach Nick Bertrando said. “But we were able a couple times to stave off that run that Salamanca made and make a run of our own.”

Playing with confidence coming out of the locker room, Fredonia took its first lead of the game on the opening possession of the second half as Koopman drilled a 3-pointer. Cory Holleran answered with a jumper for the Warriors, but Gullo responded with a layup for the Hillbillies to keep Fredonia ahead 33-30.

The back and forth continued until it was tied again at 35-all. It was then that the Warriors delivered another blow, as the defense continued to lead to offense for the visitors. Fredonia turnovers forced by pressing and trapping from the Warriors defense sparked a Salamanca run of 11-4 to close the third quarter.

“That’s the toughest any team has played us all year. They played unbelievably hard all game long,” Bennett said of Fredonia. “… But our guys kept fighting.”

From there, Salamanca maintained the lead the rest of the way. In the fourth quarter, Maddox Isaac delivered the victory for his Warriors at the free-throw line. Isaac had 11 points in the final frame, including nine made free throws. Isaac scored as many points from the free-throw line on Friday as Fredonia’s leading scorer on the night had overall.

“They just grind you and just keep grinding. That’s the reason why they are undefeated in league. They are the real deal,” Bertrando said. “They are the toughest team we’ve faced, 100%.”

Isaac’s game-high 26 points led the Warriors. Salamanca managed 60 points on the road against the tough Fredonia defense, despite not having a single bench point on Friday. Avery Brown had 12 points, Holleran had 10, Jake Herrick had 9 points and Peyton Bradley had two buckets in the opening quarter.

The Hillbillies were led by 13 points from Koopman, while Gullo and Donovan Dowdy each had 9 points. Brennan Lincoln had 8 points, while three others — Malachi Hall, Colin Luce and Ashton Putney — had 4 points apiece. The Hillbillies had 21 turnovers on the night.

“Their pressure and their execution was the difference in the game. We did not handle the pressure well enough. They executed to a great degree and the final product is what it is,” Bertrando said.

The Warriors spent the entirety of the night face-guarding Putney, Fredonia’s leading scorer on the season, and held him scoreless in three of the four periods on Friday. Entering play on Friday, Putney and Luce combined to average more than 26 points per game. On Friday, they combined for 8 points.

Up next, Salamanca plays a nonleague game against East Aurora tonight at 5 at St. Bonaventure’s Reilly Center. Fredonia travels to Olean on Tuesday in another CCAA Division 1 contest.

While Salamanca can already claim a championship with several games left on its schedule, the championship will not impact the way the Warriors view what they have left to accomplish.

“It’s a great accomplishment. I don’t think a lot of people expected us to do that this year, but we don’t really care,” Bennett said of the perception of his team. “We know what we’ve got inside.”

SALAMANCA (60)

Herrick 4 0 9, Bradley 2 0 4, Hill 0 0 0, Isaac 6 13 26, Drugg 0 0 0, Crouse 0 0 0, Brown 5 2 12, Holleran 3 1 10, Farmer 0 0 0. Totals 20 16 60.

FREDONIA (51)

Luce 2 0 4, Dowdy 4 0 9, Gullo 3 3 9, Koopman 3 4 13, APutney 2 0 4, Lincoln 4 0 8, Hall 2 0 4. Totals 20 7 51.

3-point goals–Herrick, Isaac, Holleran 2, Dowdy, Koopman 3.

Salamanca 17 11 18 14 — 60

Fredonia 12 16 11 12 — 51