BUFFALO — After a school-record 21 wins on the season and the first Section VI title as a Class A school since 1972, the Fredonia Hillbillies saw their season come to an end on Sunday in the Class A crossover game against the Grand Island Vikings.

Fredonia trailed the entire way in a 69-37 loss at Buffalo State University.

“We just couldn’t get our legs underneath us,” said Fredonia head coach Nick Bertrando. “It was just tough sledding all day.”

The Class A crossover pitted two champions with identical 21-2 records against each other: Fredonia, among the smallest schools in Class A2, and Grand Island, among the largest schools in Class A1.

Sunday showed the difference between the two teams was not just in class size. Grand Island was dominant in every facet of the game.

The Vikings were physical on defense, but did not foul. Fredonia managed just four free-throw attempts the entire way. The Hillbillies were out of rhythm offensively from the very beginning of the game.

“Their physicality played a part into how they wanted to approach the game. Early struggles started to mount, then all of a sudden as the hole gets deeper, we definitely took some quicker shots than we wanted to,” Bertrando said. “We struggled early, middle, and end to get buckets and come away with the shots we’ve gotten throughout the year.”

Grand Island also shared the ball on offense, with three different players scoring 17 points or more. From a fast-break dunk to three different players hitting 3-pointers, Grand Island scored from everywhere on the floor. They didn’t even need to go to the line much at all, with only five free-throw attempts, all in the first half.

Bertrando acknowledged after the game that Grand Island was the best team Fredonia had faced all season. The Hillbillies had only lost to one team — Dunkirk — prior to yesterday, and both of those games were close throughout.

The game against Grand Island wasn’t.

“Their balance, their patience, obviously they’ve got kids that can put the ball in the basket and defend. They did it in all three phases. They did it on both ends of the court. They did it in transition,” Bertrando said. “They are one of those teams that you scratch your head and say, ‘How are we going to play them?'”

After a scoreless first two minutes, Grand Island (22-2, Class A1 Champion) scored the game’s first five points. Fredonia (21-3, Class A2 Champion) got on the board exactly three minutes into play on a bucket from RJ Koopman, but Grand Island held the lead the entire quarter.

It was Jake Castiglia, not the 6-foot-7 Gabe Brown, who led Grand Island early, with eight of the Vikings’ 15 points in the first quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers. The Hillbillies had just six points in the opening frame, and entered the second quarter trailing by nine, 15-6.

“Going into the game, we knew we weren’t going to stop (Brown) by any means, but we wanted to stymie what he wanted to do,” Bertrando said. “Sometimes, when you put such an emphasis on one player … it comes back to bite you.”

The second quarter proved the opening frame was no fluke. Grand Island outscored Fredonia by nine points again, just as it did in the first. The Vikings kicked off the frame with eight of the first 10 points, including a fastbreak dunk from Brown.

A corner three from Ryan Kelly pulled Fredonia back within a dozen with 4:23 left in the first half, followed immediately by a Fredonia timeout. From there, a pair of Brown threes in a 10-point quarter for the Vikings’ standout put Grand Island ahead comfortably again. Koopman’s 3-pointer with three seconds left in the half lifted Fredonia to 16 points in the half, trailing by 18 at the break.

Things didn’t get any easier in the second half for Fredonia. The Vikings scored eight of the first 10 points in the second half to extend their lead to 42-18. Until a Koopman layup with 3:05 left in the period, Grand Island had scored 12 of the 16 points and led by 26 points.

After three periods, the Vikings’ lead was 48-24. Over the first half of the fourth quarter, the Grand Island lead grew to 58-30. Then, with Fredonia trailing 65-32 with 1:54 left to play, Bertrando pulled his seniors off the floor one final time.

“They’ve been through the best of times, and they’ve been through some rough times, but these kids were willing to fight, scrap and claw, and represent the school, the community, the program, and themselves the right way,” Bertrando said. “That’s what it’s all about. Regardless of today’s final score, there are a lot of great things to look back on and be proud of.”

Koopman led Fredonia with 17 points. Donovan Dowdy had 8 points, while Colin Luce had 4 and Ryan Kelly had 3. Sunday was the final game for all five Fredonia seniors — Koopman, Dowdy, Luce, Kelly and Brennan Lincoln, who had been part of the program since they were called up for the postseason run as freshmen.

“They have been huge this year, not only with the production on the court, but their leadership — taking this next group after they leave and showing them this is how we do things,” Bertrando said. “This is a special group.”

Three players combined for 61 of the 69 points for Grand Island: Chase Uribes, Dane Brown and Castiglia. Uribes led all players with 24 points after averaging just over 7 points per game on the season.

Up next, Grand Island plays in a sub-regional contest on Wednesday evening, back at Buffalo State University.