FSU starts fast, loses to WVSU, 100-85

Dec. 1—FROSTBURG — Frostburg State led for the first 11 minutes. Then West Virginia State University took over and led the final 29 in a 100-85 Mountain East Conference win on Wednesday at Bobcat Arena.

"Our defense wasn't where we think it should be at," Frostburg head coach Sean Brown Sr. said. "We've been working since Monday to stop some of their big guys and those guys still got off."

The Bobcats (3-4, 1-2 Mountain East) shot 45.6% from the field and 21.1% from three-point range. The Yellow Jackets (6-0, 3-0) shot 57.6% from the field and 43.5% from deep.

"That's a really good team, they'll be a top 25 team and they'll be top of our league," Brown said. "These are the teams you wanna compete against and these are the teams we gotta beat."

Frostburg led 10-4 early with two layups each from Jason Murphy and Tairell Fletcher. The Bobcats led 15-10 midway through the first half.

Vincent Smalls was active on the glass early on with seven rebounds through the first nine minutes. He finished with nine rebounds in the first half including five on offense.

"He played a pretty good game today," Brown said of Smalls. "He was able to attack, he was a little more aggressive. Hopefully, he'll build on that performance."

The Yellow Jackets cut their deficit to 22-18 before going on an 8-2 run and to take their first lead at 26-24 with 6:52 left.

"They regrouped and cranked it up," Brown said. "They got a little physical with it and we didn't match their physicality. We started shooting a lot of jump shots. When we get further away from the basket, we're not that good. We wanna keep getting the ball to the rim, get inside out jump shots."

The Yellow Jackets ended the first half on a 20-9 run to lead 46-33 at halftime.

"Number one, we have to defend better," Brown said on his halftime message. "The next thing is we gotta move the ball. Keep that ball moving and get people involved. Second half offensively we scored a ton of points, but we couldn't stop the other team."

Frostburg opened the second half on an 8-0 run including back-to-back layups from Fletcher. It cut their deficit to 46-41 with 17:44 to go.

WVSU responded with a 17-3 run including six points from Malik Whitaker. He had a huge second half with 18 points and recorded a double-double with 26 points and 11 rebounds.

"He's a very talented kid," Brown said of Whitaker. "We got after the same kids, recruit the same kids. He's a young man that went to junior college in our region (Allegany College of Maryland) so we're very familiar with him. He got going, and once he got going a player like that is hard to stop."

The Bobcats found some momentum on offense late. Frostburg went on a 7-0 run to make the score 66-53. Six of the points came from Murphy off of two layups and a dunk.

The final 12 minutes saw a lot of points and a lot of back-and-forth scoring. WVSU was outscored 39-34 in the final 12 minutes. The Bobcats were led by Fletcher late as he scored 18 of his 24 points in the final 12 minutes. Fletcher also had seven rebounds, five assists and two steals.

"Tairell sat out last year so he's still getting acclimated," Brown said. "I think in a few more weeks he'll be ready to roll."

Each team had four players score in double figures. For the Yellow Jackets, Samier Kinsler scored 19 points with two steals. Noah Jordan had 13 points with six rebounds. Cisse finished with 12 points and and three rebounds.

For the Bobcats, Murphy scored 19 points with seven rebounds and two blocks. Agyei Edwards had 15 points with three rebounds and two steals. Smalls scored 11 points with nine rebounds and two steals.

"I think we need to give Jason a few more touches," Brown said of Murphy. "It's gonna take him some time to get acclimated to our system."

Both teams play on Saturday at 4 p.m. WVSU hosts Fairmont State while Frostburg travels to play Charleston.

"Defending and rebounding the basketball," Brown said on the keys to beating the Golden Eagles. "We gotta execute offensively and defensively."

Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @JKendallCTN.