FROSTBURG, Md. – The Frostburg State Men's Basketball team saw their second half comeback attempt fall just short in the last minutes of Wednesday night's 83-77 loss to Notre Dame (Ohio).
 
The Falcons started out strong with a pair of free throws and back-to-back threes taking them to a six-point lead, but FSU responded with graduate Juston Bailey nailing two straight from downtown himself, followed by a lay-in by junior Tairell Fletcher to knot the score at 10-10. Each side traded triples again, as Gbolahan Adio hit for NDC and graduate Bo Schene answering for the Bobcats. Notre Dame began to put on the pressure from behind the arc, lighting up the scoreboard to the tune of a 21-10 run to put them ahead 34-23 with just over seven minutes remaining in the half.
 
Fletcher took over Frostburg's offense, scoring seven in a row on fastbreak opportunities, but FSU wasn't able to make much of a dent in their deficit, which stood at eight at the 4:35 mark. The Falcons took anything that the Bobcats attempted to throw at them and provided a response each time, including scoring the final five points of the half on a pair of free throws and a late three to go into the locker room up 49-35 at the half.
 
The second half began with a bang from Fletcher, who knocked down a contested three to get the Bobcats going. Once again, however, NDC scored from distance on a few occasions, punctuating an 8-2 burst with a steal and dunk in transition to grow their lead to 59-44. FSU would not go down without a fight, as the defense locked down and held the Falcons scoreless for three minutes. During the stretch, juniors Jaylin Albury and Jason Murphy combined to go 4-4 at the charity stripe, then Murphy and Fletcher both scored layups to rocket the Bobcats back into the game down seven with 13 and a half minutes to go.
 
The sides traded blows over the next six minutes, as Notre Dame was able to maintain their advantage at 69-59 with seven minutes remaining. Graduate Vincent Smalls made a stop-jumper in the paint, then Bailey made his own bucket to get FSU within six at the under-five media timeout. NDC hit a key three in response, but Albury got the bench hyped up by converting his and-one opportunity, followed by Murphy scoring a putback and Bailey finishing the old-fashioned three-point play to bring the game to 76-73 going into the final two minutes. Going down the floor after a Bobcat miss, Smalls was whistled for a technical foul, allowing the Falcons to knock down a pair of free throws and retain the ball on offense, from which they drew another foul to score from the charity stripe and suddenly go up by seven. Murphy capitalized on a late basket plus a foul to get within four, but after a late foul shot was offensively rebounded by NDC, FSU ended up falling 83-77.
 
Fletcher and Murphy provided a majority of the Bobcats' scoring with 23 and 18, respectively, as Murphy also dominated the boards with a career-high 17 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive glass.
 
With the loss, Frostburg falls to 5-8, while Notre Dame improves to 8-4 on the season. The Bobcats return to action on Saturday, January 7 for a road game against Alderson Broaddus set to begin at 4 p.m. Information and updates will be posted to frostburgsports.com.