FROSTBURG — Trailing by 11 points with 15 minutes to play, Frostburg State rallied to complete the comeback, defeating Davis & Elkins (D&E) on Wednesday 97-94 at Bobcat Arena.
“It’s just a great comeback,” FSU head coach Zack Thomsen said. “Proud of our guys for continuing to battle and find a way to come away with a win.”
Vegas Evans hit a triple with 15:07 remaining that put the Senators (8-19, 5-13 Mountain East Conference) ahead 61-50.
Evans finished with 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal.
Over the next seven minutes, the Bobcats (14-13, 10-9 MEC) went on a 27-14 run led by DJ Daniel’s 14 points.
Daniel dropped 21 points, all after halftime, with three assists, two steals and a block.
“I just had to have the mentality to keep scoring,” Daniel said. “Be confident in my shot. My teammates got me open, so I was able to score.”
With 7:40 to play, Daniel assisted Trey Simmons on a 3-pointer that put Frostburg ahead 77-75, its first lead since 4-2.
Simmons scored a game-high 30 points with six rebounds, eight assists and a steal.
As of Tuesday, Simmons was fifth in Division II with 23.6 points per game.
After four ties and two lead changes, the Bobcats trailed 92-90 with just under three minutes left.
Mitch Finefrock swiped a steal, then Chase Whippen passed to Daniel who threw down a dunk to even the score at 92.
With 50.3 seconds on the clock, Simmons hit a pair of free throws to put the Bobcats ahead 94-92.
“We stopped switching for a little stretch there,” Thomsen said of what changed defensively to spark the rally. “Then we started doubling the post from a different spot, tried to mix it up and keep them off balance.”
Matthew Gray split a pair for the Senators to get within 94-93 with 39.7 seconds left.
Gray led D&E with 28 points, adding two blocks and a steal.
In the final 30 seconds, Kyle Whippen, who ecorded a double-double of 23 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and three blocks, blocked a layup which led to a pair of free throws from Mitch Finefrock.
Leading 96-93 with five seconds to play, Finefrock intentionally fouled Gray.
He made the first, then intentionally missed the second, but the ball went out of bounds and back to the Bobcats.
“It’s a big thing, we got a big tournament coming up,” Simmons said of completing the comeback. “It’s time to make a run for it.”
Simmons split a pair to go up three before D&E’s desperation triple hit the rim.
The Senators opened the game on a 14-4 run led by Gray’s seven points.
Frostburg opened 1 of 7 (14%) from the field and trailed by as many as 12 in the first half.
“I think the ball was sticking a lot, we weren’t moving it real well,” Thomsen said. “We got down, tried to press and I think they made it tough on us.”
Down 32-20 with 7:28 before halftime, the Bobcats outscored D&E 19-14 to end the half trailing 46-39.
Kyle Whippen scored nine points while Chase Whippen added eight during FSU’s run.
Chase Whippen also had a double-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds and a steal.
Nnadozie Okoroji (13), Dontrell Jenkins (11) and Malachi Hampton (10) also scored in double figures for D&E.
Hampton recorded a double-double with 12 assists and two steals.
Frostburg ends the regular season at Fairmont State on Saturday at 4 p.m.
The Fighting Falcons (23-4, 16-3 MEC) are ranked No. 10 in the Division II coaches poll.
“It’s big, you want to go into the conference tournament playing your best basketball,” Thomsen said. “I don’t know that tonight was our best basketball, but we’d been playing fairly well the last couple games. Hopefully, we can build off of this, play well on Saturday and have some momentum going into the tournament.”