BUCKHANNON — In a highly emotional and evenly matched game where statistics were nearly identical, the West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcat men’s basketball team went to overtime on a last second blocked shot but came up short in the final five minutes to Frostburg State University, 91-88, Wednesday in the Rockefeller Center.
With the score tied at 80, Wesleyan’s Alex Gray rejected Frostburg’s Koby Baptiste’s shot with one second left in regulation after Baptiste came free in the paint and looked destined to drop the final layup. Gray swatted the ball off the backboard as the buzzer sounded.
With a dominating 44-26 score at the halftime break, the ‘Cats were in complete control going into the second half. But its 55-28 percent field goal shooting percentage advantage slowly trickled away and a lead Wesleyan had maintained since the first minutes of the game and grew to 19 with 16:46 remaining, disappeared when Frostburg’s Jaden Baker tied the score at the 2:22 mark.
A three-pointer by Wesleyan overall points-leader Alex Mirhosseini was followed by a blocked shot by Mirhosseini that led to a successful layup by Stephen Ovia with 1:37 remaining and the ‘Cats were up by five. Frostburg tied it at 80 with a three-pointer by Eric Sondberg and a layup by Naphtali Regilus after Wesleyan’s Michael Batchelor missed a deep trey.
In overtime, Frostburg hit 2-of-3 field goals and went 6-of-10 from the line. Wesleyan managed 2-of-8 from the field but was at the line less often, hitting all three of its attempts.
Ovia logged a season-best 24 points to lead all scorers. He added 13 rebounds for the official double-double, blocked two shots and stole the ball twice. Mirhosseini had 20 points, Anthony Crosby dropped in 17 points and Batchelor hit for 15 points.
Frostburg was led by Baker with 20 points, JayShaun Freeman with 19 points and Baptiste recorded a double-double with 16 points and 13 boards.
Wesleyan returns to action Saturday, Jan. 25 when the Bobcats visit Davis & Elkins College for a 4 p.m. tipoff.
