The Chapel Field Lions stayed with the Marlboro Iron Dukes for three quarters.

Then a key mistake at the beginning of the fourth quarter contributed to a six-point run, giving the Iron Dukes a 10-point lead, as the Lions dropped a non-league boys’ basketball game, 51-40 on Wednesday at Marlboro High School.

“We played decent,” Chapel Field coach Brad McDuffie said. “We didn’t play well coming out of the break against Highland and we kind of just wanted to get our guys back to basics.”

Despite trailing by seven points in the first quarter, the Lions won the second quarter by three points and played even with the Iron Dukes in the third.

The Lions entered the fourth quarter, trailing 31-27.

“I was pretty happy with the effort,” McDuffie said. “I thought we gave them a battle. I don’t think that they thought we were going to be able to battle much with them. They’re a bigger school.”

Of course, aside from their competition in the Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Class D division, the Lions have no choice but to play up.

Although with a younger team than last year’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association finalists, the approach to these games is different.

“We feel a little different coming to these games,” McDuffie said. “We’re not quite like, ‘Oh, yeah, we can really battle.’ Now, we’re like, ‘I hope we battle,’ because when you have sophomores starting, you don’t know what you’re going to get on a given night.”

The Lions’ steady senior, Jonah McDuffie, scored a game-high 23 points.
However, the game got away from the seniors early in the fourth quarter.

After Marlboro’s Matthew Ciarimboli hit a jumper to extend their lead to six points, the defense trapped Chapel Field’s Mikey Bonagura at the sideline, and he was called for a 5-second violation.

He bounced the ball hard and high in frustration, earning a technical foul and sending Brooks to the line, where he hit 1 of

2.

Then on the next play, Miles Brooks was fouled by Jonah McDuffie, hitting both. Then on the next possession, he was fouled by Bonagura, and hit one.

By the end of that stretch, the Iron Dukes led by 10 points, their largest of the game at that point.

“They play a very physical brand of ball, and that’s great for us just to be able to have to respond to that physicality,” coach McDuffie said. “They can throw a lot of numbers at us. They see different defenders and different concepts, and they have to respond to it.”

Christopher DeNatale led the Iron Dukes with 17 points and Brooks added 14. Ny’eem Douglas scored 10.

“I think the season is just one step at a time and you’ve got to keep focused on, ‘OK, what is what is our objective here?’ And so again, like tonight, we wanted to win it. We would have stolen if we could have stolen it, but more more importantly, it’s the big picture.”