ST. MARY’S CITY, Md. – The Frostburg State men’s basketball team watched as 12th ranked St. Mary’s slowly turned a nine-point halftime lead into a 73-53 victory, Wednesday night.

The Bobcats (8-14, 2-7) held a couple of leads in the opening half of action. Senior Christian Jackson hit a layup at 12:06 that gave the visitors a 13-11 cushion. Senior Kwambina Coker hit a free throw moments later that gave FSU a 14-13 edge and Jackson hit a free throw at 9:17 that pushed Frostburg to an 18-16 lead.

From there, St. Mary’s closed out the half on a 19-8 run for a 35-26 edge at intermission.

The Seahawks pushed their lead to 46-29 with five minutes gone from the second half clock. The hosts hit a 20-point cushion (50-30) at 13:26 and slowly increased its lead over the next eight minutes.

With just under seven minutes left in the contest, St. Mary’s pushed its advantage to 61-34 and at 4:57, the hosts led 68-39.

Despite trailing by almost 30 points, the Bobcats made a late surge and used a 14-5 scoring outburst to bring the final score to 73-53.

Jackson led the Bobcats in scoring with 28 points and tied sophomore Jabari Kamau with nine rebounds each. Jackson was the only player in double figures for the Bobcats.

Donn Hill scored 16 and Nick LaGuerre added 15 to pace St. Mary’s. The Seahawks shot 47 percent (27-of-57) from the field.

FSU returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Salisbury on senior day at 3:00 pm.