By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org
WHEELING, W.Va. — The newest member of the Mountain East Conference didn't waste any time making a little history here Wednesday evening in the opening round of the MEC Men's Basketball Tournament at WesBanco Arena.
Point Park, which joined the MEC at the beginning of the academic year, became the first No. 10 seed in the men's tournament to win a game when it knocked off seventh-seeded Frostburg State, 74-71.
The Pioneers ended a frustrating 10-game losing streak dating back to January with the hard-fought victory, which featured 10 lead changes and five ties. The win improved Point Park to 11-18 and sets up a meeting with second-seeded Fairmont State on Friday at noon in the tournament.
"I'm really proud of the team today," Point Park coach
Kevin Reynolds said. "The guys have been working super hard. It's been a rough year. We've been humbled.
"We have a lot of champions in our locker room. Last year at this time we were cutting the nets down. We're a prideful group even though we were knocked back a little bit this season. Again, I'm just very happy for the guys. They've worked hard and they're great guys so it stinks when you don't win."
Point Park, which at times likes to play deliberate and methodical, executed its game plan to perfection. The Pioneers refused to let Frostburg's press speed them up. Instead, led by guards
Nathaniel Van and
Brenden Williams, the Pioneers handled the Bobcats' pressure, ran the shot clock down in virtually every possession and attacked Frostburg in the paint, outscoring the higher seed there 38-16.
"Tonight, Coach Reynolds had a certain game plan for us," Williams said. "He wanted us to play at our own pace and play slower. Frostburg is a tough team which likes to play fast. That wasn't going to work against us tonight. We had the right game plan and trusted that we were going to win with it."
Williams, who played the entire 40 minutes of the contest for Point Park, led all scorers with 26 points, including four crucial free throws in the game's final 16 seconds which sealed the victory for the Pioneers.
Point Park also got 20 points and 10 rebounds from Van, who went over 1,000 points for his career. In addition,
Nick Marshall chipped in 10 points and
Nazareth Fisher added seven points, a game-high 12 rebounds and five blocked shots.
The contest featured several quirky stats. Point Park was plus-31 on the glass, outrebounding the Bobcats, 49-18. The tournament record for rebound margin in a game is 33, set by Glenville State against Frostburg last year. The Bobcats' 18 rebounds Wednesday are a new low for a team in an MEC Tournament game.
Frostburg, which trailed 35-31 at the half, also was limited to just one made 2-point field goal in the opening 20 minutes, but was 9-of-19 from long distance during that span to keep the contest close.
"It obviously wasn't our best showing tonight," said Frostburg coach Zach Thomsen, who had beaten the Pioneers twice during the regular season. "It was a disappointing way to end the season. Not to discredit what Point Park did tonight because I thought they played great, but I think we played far less than our best game, unfortunately, at a bad time.
"The first time we played them they tried to run with us. The second time they played a little bit slower and had a really short bench, but they didn't play as slow as they did tonight. That was new as far as holding the ball and setting a late ball screen and we didn't do a great job at all in those ball screens defensively. We kept giving up drives to the rim."
Frostburg finished its season at 12-17. The 12 victories were the most for the Bobcats in 13 years. The squad also improved by nine wins over last year.
Trey Simmons led Frostburg with 21 points, 17 of which came in the opening half. The Bobcats also got 18 points from Jaden Baker, all of which came in the second half.
"I knew it was go-time for me there in the second half," Baker said. "Trey is a freshman, but he steps up for us too. We really contrast each other and play well off of each other. He shot the ball very well and he can get downhill too. I knew in the second half they were going to make an adjustment on him and I tried to take advantage of it."
As noted, Point Park and Fairmont State will battle Friday in the quarterfinals at noon. The Pioneers lost by five to the Falcons in their first meeting and by 11 in Fairmont back on Feb. 19.
"We've got to get hydrated and get ready for Fairmont State," Reynolds said. "We had two great games against them this year. We're going to be happy tonight, but we're not satisfied. We didn't come here just to play on Wednesday. That isn't our goal. Our goal is to get to Saturday night and then anything can happen."
