Junior guard Dylan Farinet scored a career-high 25 points and added eight rebounds, three assists, and three steals, including one that led to the game winning points, as the University of Mary Washington men's basketball team defeated Frostburg State University, 79-78, in overtime on Tuesday night at the Anderson Center in Capital Athletic Conference tournament first round action. The Eagles improve to 14-12 on the season.
After early back-and-forth action that saw four lead changes, Frostburg went on a 7-0 run to lead, 14-8, with 13:55 remaining in the first half. The Eagles answered with six straight points to tie the score at 14 with 11:11 left. The Eagles took the lead at 17-16 on a Taylor Johnson three pointer with 8:38 remaining, and held the lead for the next six minutes. UMW led, 26-22, with 2:29 remaining, but the Bobcats closed the half on a 12-4 run to lead, 34-30, at halftime.
The Bobcats came out firing in the second half, starting the second 20 minutes with an 11-3 run to lead, 45-33, with 16:57 remaining. UMW began to chip away at the deficit by scoring eight straight, including four straight from Farinet, to cut the deficit to four at 45-41 with 14:53 left.
A three pointer from junior guard Bradley Riester cut the deficit to two at the 14:05 mark, but FSU quickly rebuilt its lead, making an 8-2 run to lead by eight with 12:38 on the clock. The Bobcats ran the lead to as many as nine with 9:57 left (60-51), but a three pointer from junior guard Dom Morra spearheaded a 7-0 Eagle run to cut the deficit back to 64-63 with 4:48 left.
After a pair of Bobcat free throws, Farinet made a three-point play the old fahsioned way to tie the score at 66 with 4:01 on the clock, the first time the Bobcats didn't hold the lead since the 1:40 mark of the first half. After the teams traded baskets, junior E.J. Willis hit three pointer from the top of the key to put UMW ahead, 71-68. The only basket either team would score in the final three minutes was a three pointer from DeSean Antoine with 36 seconds left to tie the score and send the game into overtime.
In the extra period, UMW jumped ahead early with layups from Sean Armstrong and Farinet, and a house-rocking slam dunk from the 6-1 Riester, giving UMW a 77-71 lead with 2:37 to play. The Bobcats came out of a timeout scoring eight straight over the next 1:24 to lead, 78-77 with 1:13 left. After an Eagles miss with 48 seconds left, Farinet stole the ball with 29 seconds left, and FSU senior Christian Jackson fouled out on the steal. Farinet went to the line for two and sank them both, and the Bobcats three-pointer at the buzzer missed, giving UMW the hard fought win.
Farinet led the Eagles with a career-high 25 points on 10-21 shooting, and made 5-6 free throws. Riester scored 16 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and added seven assists, and Armstrong scored 14 and added nine boards for UMW. Willis scored nine and Taylor Johnson eight for UMW. Frostburg was led by Antoine's 23 points.
UMW shot 44.3% from the floor for the game (31-70), with seven three pointers, and made 10-16 free throws, while the Bobcats went 25-64 from the field with 11 three pointers and went 17-29 from the line. UMW held a commanding 56-31 lead in rebounding, but were plagued by 26 turnovers.
The Eagles will advance to the CAC semifinals on Thursday night to face top-seeded St. Mary's College at 7:00 p.m.