Frostburg State, Davis & Elkins Advance to MEC Tournament Quarterfinals

Frostburg State 93, West Virginia State 85

By Bryan Dillion

For Mountain East.org

WHEELING, W.Va. – Player of the Year, Trey Simmons, Frostburg State earned its first-ever tournament victory with a 93-85 win over West Virginia State on Wednesday evening at WesBanco Arena in the first round of the Mountain East Conference tournament presented by The Health Plan.

Frostburg State, the seven seed, improves to 15-14 on the year, while West Virginia State’s season ends with a record of 8-21. The Bobcats will return to action on Friday at Noon when they take on the second-seeded Falcons of Fairmont State at WesBanco Arena.

Simmons, who scored a game-high 36 points, the 7th most points in a game in MEC tournament history, was part of a trio that included Kyle Whippen (25) and DJ Daniel (20) that accounted for 81 points on the night.

thought we started out slow, then had a nice run through the middle part of the first half,” remarked Frostburg State head coach Zach Thomsen. The Bobcats opened the scoring with a three-point field goal from Simmons, before a 10-3 run by the Hornets gave them a 10-6 advantage with 16:04 remaining in the first half.

From that point, Frostburg State went on a 36-14 run over the next 12:02 to give FSU a 42-24 lead with 4:13 remaining in the first half. The run to open their largest lead of the night at 18 points included individual runs of 14-0 and 14-4.

"I am proud of our guys for battling back,” said West Virginia State Head Coach Bryan Poore. “Frostburg got going in the first half, and it looked bleak, but our guys stuck with it and battled back to give us a chance down the stretch.” Coach Poore showed emotion as he looked back on what was a tough year for the Hornets in multiple ways.

The Hornets showed that fight as they closed the first half on a 12-4 run to end the first half trailing 46-36. Jaylen Subject, who finished the game with 23 points, was key for West Virginia State’s finish to the half as he scored seven points over the final five minutes to close the deficit to ten points.

West Virginia State carried the momentum from the first half into the second half, scoring the opening ten points of the half to tie the game at 46-46. Blake Goodman was key in the opening two minutes of the second half, scoring eight of his team-high 26 points.

The second half turned into a game of runs from both teams. Frostburg State answered the opening run with a 9-2 run to push the lead to 55-48 following a made layup by DJ Daniel. WVSU once again battled back with its own run of 10-2 to take a 58-57 lead with 14:38 left in the game. Goodman had five points in that run, including a three-pointer and two made free throws.

After the Hornets grabbed their largest lead of the game at 74-70, Frostburg State went on the decisive run of the game, utilizing a 23-11 stretch over the final 6:24 to close out the game and give the Bobcats their first MEC tournament victory.

Following the victory, Coach Thomsen stated, “we gave up a run at the end of the first half that carried over to the beginning of the second half that put us in a dog-fight. These guys just battled, stayed with it, and came up with enough plays to come out on top. I am proud of the way these guys played and stuck together when we didn’t have things go our way.”

League player of the Year Simmons talked about the importance of the first tournament win for the program, saying, “ I think it is big for the program. With this win, it can build on a bigger future to come for Frostburg.” Kyle Whippen added, “I am thankful for everything that Frostburg has given me, so I am happy to give them the first [tournament] win, especially in my last year.”

Davis & Elkins 75, Point Park 73

By Bryan Dillion

For Mountain East.org

WHEELING, W.Va. – Davis & Elkins advanced to the quarterfinals of the Mountain East tournament on Vegas Evans’s turnaround jumper shot with 27 seconds remaining to give the Senators a 75-73 victory over Point Park on Wednesday night at WesBance Arena.

The final game of the opening night of the Mountain East Conference Tournament presented by The Health plan came down to the wire in a game that had 15 lead changes and 13 ties, with neither team leading by more than eight points.

With the victory, Davis & Elkins improves to 10-19 on the season and will advance to face the top-seeded West Liberty Hilltoppers on Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. at WesBanco Arena.

"I thought it was a gritty victory,” said D&E head coach Daniel Harris. “I thought our guys stayed the course, especially with them starting out hot and getting up early. I am proud of this group. If you look at our season, we had a lot of games like that which didn’t go our way. It was a team effort. I am happy, and we are going to celebrate tonight and then get ready for [West Liberty on] Friday.”

The Senators had four players score in double digits, led by Dontrell Jenkins’ 19 points. He was joined in double-figures by Matthew Gray (17), Vegas Evans (12), and Nnadozie Okoroji (11). Malachi Hampton was key on the boards, leading all players with 13 rebounds. Point Park was led by Aiden Anderson, who notched his sixth double-double of the season with 27 points and 12 rebounds.

Davis & Elkins finished the game shooting 45 percent from the field, hitting on 29-of-64 attempts and 41 percent from deep to make up for a difference of 12 fewer free throws than Point Park. The Pioneers shot well for most of the night, but only connected one of their final nine shots, allowing D&E to come-from-behind late to win a game that the Pioneers led for over 24 minutes.

Eight lead changes highlighted a tightly contested first half between the Pioneers and Senators. The half started with consecutive baskets by Point Park. The teams then exchanged baskets for the next four plus minutes of the half before Davis & Elkins took its first lead with 14:18 remaining in the half on a three-pointer from Dontrell Jenkins, which gave the Senators a 15-14 advantage.

Point Park grabbed its largest lead of the half, eight points, following a 13-2 run over a five-minute stretch, giving them a 30-22 lead with 6:14 left in the half. After trailing by eight, Davis & Elkins immediately responded with a 9-0 run of its own to wrestle back a one-point lead at 31-30.

Over the final 3:33 of the first half, the teams exchanged the lead three more times to head into halftime with Point Park leading 37-36.

In the first half, both teams shot over 41 percent from the field. Davis & Elkins shot 44.8 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from behind the arc. Point Park shot 41.2 percent from the field and 75 percent at the foul line.

The back-and-forth nature of the game continues throughout the second period of play, with neither team leading by more than five points throughout the entire half. The second half started with teams exchanging the first four basketballs of the half.

Aiden Anderson, who scored 16 of his game-high 27 in the second half, sank a free throw with 16:38 left in the game to tie the score for the first of seven times in the half at 44-44. Anderson would once again tie the score with 9:25 remaining on a short jump shot before Davis & Elkins would take its largest lead of the game by three points at 63-60 on a jumper from Jeremiah Whitmore and a free throw from Darrius Roach.

It looked like Point Park would seize the momentum, going on an 8-0 run over the next 1:17 to take its largest lead of the second half at 68-63 with 6:37 left to play. The Pioneers would only hit one more field goal the rest of the game, opening the door for Evans’ late-game heroics.

"We played hard, and it was a typical conference tournament game, one team makes a run and the other team makes a run,” remarked Point Park head Coach Ryan Grandits. “At the end of the game, I told them we were proud of them. We battled as much as we needed to battle. They had some guys make some tough shots and we had some guys miss shots that they normally make. I thought we made more than enough plays to win the game, and it was just a couple of things here and there.”

The Mountain East Conference Tournament presented by The Health Plan will continue on Thursday, March 5, with a full slate of games in the women’s bracket beginning at Noon with second-seeded West Virginia Wesleyan and seventh-seeded Frostburg State. The men’s bracket will resume on Friday at Noon with second-seeded Fairmont State hosting seventh-seeded Frostburg State. All games will be held at WesBance Arena in Wheeling.