Falconer’s Bradyn Fuller, left, fights through the defense of Cassadaga Valley’s Hunter Cleland at the Westfield Winter Classic boys basketball tournament on Thursday at Westfield Academy. P-J photo by Braden Carmen

WESTFIELD — So far this young season, the Falconer Golden Falcons have been led by Mathis Baehr and Roger Markham, just as they were a year ago.

Thursday, that was not an option.

Both players were unavailable and away from the team for Thursday’s game against the rival Cassadaga Valley Cougars. But in their absence came opportunity for the remaining members of the Golden Falcons.

With just over three minutes remaining in a two-point game, Falconer’s Nathan Bailey drilled a 3-pointer, turned around and looked at his coach, Jordan Goold, and shouted, “Yeah!” as he ran down the floor. The shot extended the Falconer lead to five points, and from that point on, the Golden Falcons rode the momentum to a 50-45 victory over Cassadaga Valley at the Westfield Winter Classic boys basketball tournament on Thursday at Westfield Academy.

“We were so excited for this game, not because those guys were missing, but we’ve been talking about the opportunity,” Goold said. “… I don’t have enough words to say how proud I am of them. How far we’ve come in the last couple years is huge.”

Goold believes the win on Thursday was monumental for the program to change the narrative about Falconer basketball.

“The message today was, ‘It’s not because of one guy that we are what we are. It’s not because of Mathis or Roger. We are what we are because of everybody and everything we do’,” Goold said. “I’m proud of them and proud of the program.”

Cassadaga Valley (0-7) began with six of the first eight points of the game across the first half of the opening quarter. From that point, Falconer (5-1) responded with a 10-2 run over the next two minutes to take a 12-8 lead, prompting a Cassadaga Valley timeout. Falconer led 14-10 after the opening quarter.

In the second quarter, Falconer extended its lead to 19-13 over the first half of the period. From that point on, however, the Cougars hit their own hot streak. Over the final 3:03 of the first half, Cassadaga Valley scored nine straight points — led by 3-pointers on each side of the court by Ace Pierce — to put the Cougars on top at halftime, 22-19.

The third quarter was closely contested, but Cassadaga Valley held the lead the entire time. The score was within two points, but extended as far as eight points on another Pierce 3-pointer with 3:30 left in the third quarter. Eventually, the Cougars carried a 34-30 lead into the fourth quarter.

“I think we had a lot of great ball movement going through that stretch. The energy was really, really high, and I think a lot of that started on defense,” Cassadaga Valley head coach Jacob Wilcox said.

The first four buckets of the fourth quarter all came from beyond the arc, all from different players. Bradyn Fuller put Falconer on top for the first time since the second quarter with a 3-pointer. His shot was immediately answered by Cassadaga Valley’s Hunter Johnson to reclaim the lead, but Falconer took the advantage again on a Gage Swanson 3-pointer.

Falconer led by two points, in a quarter where the lead changed hands four times, when Bailey left his feet within steps of his team’s bench. When he knocked the shot down, Falconer had the largest lead of the fourth quarter and the teams traded points evenly the rest of the way.

“He’s just our guy. He’s our shooter, he knows that’s his job,” Goold said of Bailey, the Falconer-Cassadaga Valley star goalkeeper whose soccer season ended prematurely due to a severe concussion. “… I told him at halftime, ‘You’ve got to go out there and keep shooting. … You’ll get us going. They are going to fall.’ … and it fell. It got us going. That’s what we needed.”

Fuller and Zach Markham tied for the team lead with 12 points for Falconer in the win. Jaden Binkley had 10 points, while Bailey had six on a pair of fourth quarter 3-pointers.

The Cougars were led by Pierce’s 20 points, including four 3-pointers. Hunter Johnson had 16 points, including three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.

“I think the effort in that game was fantastic,” Wilcox said, while also noting his team’s success in forcing turnovers in Thursday’s game. “Hard work is going to be really key to success. We’re going to focus on that and try to capitalize.”

Cassadaga Valley will now play in the consolation game against North Collins, who fell to Westfield, 62-53, in the final game of the night on Thursday, despite 27 points from Derek Ebersole.

Falconer will face Westfield, who was led by Carson Swanson with 28 points and Aaron Fuller with 20 points in the win over North Collins Thursday night.

The consolation game is scheduled to begin at approximately 5:45 p.m., with the championship game to follow immediately afterwards.

CASSADAGA VALLEY (45)

Pierce 8 0 20, HJohnson 6 0 16, Main 0 1 1, Edson 2 2 6, Runge 1 0 2, Brown 0 0 0, JJohnson 0 0 0, Meyers 0 0 0, Cleland 0 0 0. Totals 17 3 45.

FALCONER (50)

Fuller 5 0 12, Swanson 2 0 5, Brainard 0 0 0, Bailey 2 0 6, Markham 5 0 12, Binkley 5 0 10, Jones 1 1 3, Parmentier 1 0 2. Totals 21 1 50.

3-point goals–Pierce 4, HJohnson 4, Fuller 3, Swanson, Bailey 2, Markham 2.

Cassadaga Valley 10 12 12 11 — 45

Falconer 14 5 11 20 — 50