FROSTBURG, Md. – Frostburg State collected its first Capital Athletic Conference win on Wednesday with a 70-64 victory over St. Mary's (Md.).
The win also snaps a 10-game losing skid for FSU as it improved to 2-10 overall and 1-4 in the league.
Junior Tyler Michael led the charge with 27 points, including a 14-point first half that helped the Bobcats to a 35-31 lead at the break. Junior Christopher Coston added 11 points and sophomore Edwin Cole gathered in 13 rebounds.
Defensively, the Bobcats blocked 12 shots, outrebounded the Seahawks 50-46 and held the Seahawks (7-5, 2-3) to just 33.3 percent shooting. Junior Zachary Coalmon led the defensive effort by tying his own school record with 10 blocks after registering nine blocks in Frostburg's game against the Coast Guard last week.
Despite FSU's defensive presence, St. Mary's surged to a couple of early four-point cushions before back-to-back baskets from Coston at 13:30 and 13:12 tied the contest at 12-12. Michael connected on a jumper at 12:34 and Frostburg never trailed again.
The Seahawks tied the game two more times following Michael's jumper, both in the first half, but the Bobcats never lost momentum.
The hosts surged to an eight-point lead with 4:33 to play with another Michael layup and Coston thundered home a dunk at 3:14 for Frostburg's largest lead of the opening stanza, 33-24.
St. Mary's closed the gap to two points three times in the opening five minutes of the second half, but Frostburg answered with a 9-0 scoring jolt that resulted in its largest lead of the night, 54-43, just past the midway point of the second.
The Seahawks had one final push left in them as they used a pair of small runs to narrow their deficit to just five at 7:25 and with 4:58 remaining in the game.
Freshman Lawrence Pettis, Jr. ended the surge with a three-pointer with 4:23 to play off an assist from junior Darren Campbell.
Down the stretch, FSU finished 5-of-7 at the foul line to seal the win. Frostburg finished the evening 30-of-71 (42.3%) from the field.
The Bobcats travel to No. 15 Salisbury this Saturday for a 3:00 pm tip-off.
