Frostburg State
- Jan 20, 2023
- 5 min read
Frostburg State Bobcats (4-11, 2-7) vs. Wheeling Cardinals (8-7, 6-3)
Saturday, January 14, 2023 @ 2:00 PM Frostburg, MD
Bobcat Arena at Cordts PE Center
THE SCHOOL
Frostburg State University is a public university in Frostburg, Maryland. Founded in 1902, FSU was originally a teacher's college and became a four-year institution in 1963. Nowadays, the school enrolls around 5,000 students per year. FSU is the only four-year college in western Maryland.
The Bobcats compete in the Mountain East Conference in NCAA Division II. Frostburg State is one of the newest D-II programs; they are in the the fourth year of their reclassification transition from Division III.
Wheeling University is a private Catholic university in Wheeling, West Virginia. The Cardinals also compete in the Mountain East. The Mountain East Conference has only been around since 2013, when nine schools split from the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Today, twelve teams call the conference home, with ten in West Virginia, one in Ohio, and one in Maryland.
THE TOWN
At 150 miles from my apartment in Capitol Hill, Frostburg is the farthest I've traveled for basketball since I left Nebraska. It's so far away, it doesn't really fit on my map. Coming from the southeast, you'll take Interstates 270, 70, and 68. Without any stops, it probably takes about two-and-a-half hours by car.
Frostburg (population: 7,000) is located out in the Allegheny Mountains, much closer to West Virginia and Pennsylvania than most of the rest of Maryland. As such, the climate is far different from Washington, DC's. The average temperature is always about ten to fifteen degrees colder in Frostburg. DC gets roughly a foot of snow per year (though that number has been falling recently); Frostburg averages 66 inches of snow annually, and it's not terribly uncommon to have 100 inches in a year. (Their record is 142.4 inches in 1993.) With all that, I was glad it was a relatively comfortable 30 degrees with flurries.
On the way, I stopped to eat in Cumberland. Cumberland and Frostburg both have some museums and attractions where one could spend some time. However, they are all closed for the winter because of the aforementioned annual snowfall. Fortunately, Lost Mountain BBQ was open and I had a delicious beef brisket sandwich. This is the best picture of food I've ever taken, so enjoy.
Frostburg State has a picturesque little campus. There are some great views of the hills of the Alleghenies. With a mix of old and new structures, FSU's buildings have a range of architectural styles. The Spring semester has not yet started, so I was seemingly the only person on campus outside of the basketball arena. I took some time to walk around in the cold mountain air, which was really lovely.
Cordts PE Center is a maze. When coming from the parking lot, you have to enter by going up some exterior stairs to go into a door you can’t see from outside. Once you’re inside, the basketball gym is pretty clearly to your right, but the ticket seller was down the hall and to the left, which was a little confusing. And if you would like to find a vending machine – maybe the water fountain in the building wasn’t working and maybe you forgot your water bottle in the car – you basically need to ask for a map. You’ll need to go to a stairwell that’s underneath the bleachers and find the machines located next to the away team locker room. This means you should wait a few minutes into halftime to get your water so you don’t get stuck behind the away team leaving the court like I did.
I wrote about the women's game but did not get a usable photo. This is clearly the men's game that followed. Wheeling won that 83-78.
THE GAME
As I arrived to Frostburg State’s campus, I quickly encountered a surprise: the parking lot was completely full forty-five minutes before tip-off. I had to drive down to the football field and park there. The culprit? A swim meet held in the same building.
If you're wondering, the public bathroom at Bobcat Arena is fine. Nothing special.
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It’s hard to overstate how well Frostburg’s #1, Emilee Weaklee, played in the first half. When someone says a player “single-handedly” kept their team in a game, it’s normally exaggeration. There are always other players passing the ball, rebounding, contributing to spacing, etc. But Weaklee was just about as close as you get to a one-woman show. She controlled the game’s pace, shot on nearly every FSU possession, and her frequent makes kept this from being an early blowout. By halftime, she had already amassed 20 points.
Wheeling relied on #12, Lauren Calhoun, and #3, Shamia Strayhorn, to run their offense and effectively guard every Bobcat except Emilee Weaklee. Calhoun eventually ended her day with 21 points and 15 rebounds, while Strayhorn added 15 and 7.
In addition to Weaklee, Frostburg’s #22, Shelby Funchess, came off the bench to provide key plays in pressure situations. Shortly before the end of the first quarter, she hit a layup that gave the Bobcats a 20-18 lead. And right before halftime, she blocked a Cardinal shot that would have extended a 37-36 Wheeling lead. Funchess is a fifth-year player whose experience was vital in a tight, physical first half.
Unfortunately, Weaklee and the Bobcats experienced a cold spell early in the third quarter and Wheeling took advantage. Halfway through the quarter, the Cardinals took a six-point lead (their largest of the game) and held on to a 55-52 lead at the end of the third.
On the back of Weaklee’s continued shooting and Arianna Briggs-Hall’s 14 total rebounds (#22), Frostburg stayed in the game. They trailed by just 2, 62-60 with 2:37 left, until Wheeling’s #13, Kenzie Dalton, made a layup and got fouled. Dalton missed the free throw, but she got the rebound and scored to give Wheeling a 66-60 lead.
Not dead yet, Frostburg’s #5, Maggie Sharp, made a three-point shot with 2:11 remaining to cut the lead to 3. But Wheeling’s Lauren Calhoun scored on the other end; now it’s 68-63, Wheeling.
FSU traveled on their next possession but got the ball back after a Wheeling miss. Sharp took advantage again with another three-pointer, to cut the lead to 2, 68-66 with 37 seconds left.
But Frostburg couldn’t quite hang on. Wheeling made free throws on all their possessions, and Frostburg couldn’t score enough to keep up.
Final: Wheeling 74, Frostburg State 69
Emilee Weaklee ended her day with 33 points and 11 rebounds, a stellar box score no matter where you play. When she was exploding for points in the first half, I looked at the team roster, expecting her to be a Division I transfer.
Nope, she’s a freshman. And she’s been putting up numbers like this all year. She averages 23 points and 10.5 rebounds, and she scored a season-high 38 against Alderson Broaddus.
While the Bobcats lost today and their conference record dropped to 2-8, good days may be in the future for Frostburg State, as long as Weaklee stays in town.
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