On Wednesday afternoon, October 26, 2011, our very own Frostburg Bobcats basketball team had a scrimmage against Allegany Community College of Cumberland, Md. It was a good preview of what the 2011-2012 season has to come for the team and their loyal fans and supporters. The game was broken into two, twenty minutes halves as any other college basketball game, but the score restarted at the beginning of the second half unlike a normal game. For a pre-season scrimmage there was more fan support than one would expect. It created a great atmosphere for the game and you could tell by the player’s performance, as the game started very lopsided.
Junior DeSean Antoine came out gunning as he hit a barrage of three pointers in the first half. He clearly established himself as a team leader in the beginning directing the offense and controlling the team’s tempo early on. Veteran shooting guard Troy Dockett had a slow start in the first half, but once he started going in the second half he was almost unstoppable. Senior Maurice Williams showed his ability to take control the frontcourt, just as he did last season. In the second half, we saw more of the newcomers on the team and returning sophomores on the court. The game play was a little loose and sloppy so Coach Hatch went back to the starters to get the game under control. After the game I asked versatile big man, Kwambina Coker who was unable to play due to a broken hand, what did he think? He stated, “We played good, better than I expected. We are going to make some noise this year.”
Frostburg won both halves by a good margin. Allegany did not look like their teams of the past, as the team was not as athletic or exciting as they once were. The team did not look like an actual team at all, as they played unorganized. Poor play form the backcourt affected them greatly because the offense rarely got a chance to set up. The highlight play of the scrimmage came in the second half as a freshman, Tyler, whose last name I did not get a chance to get, delivered a two-handed slam on one of his two fast break baskets. The crowd and the bench went crazy Gregory Champion, a junior here at Frostburg said, “This is only the second dunk I’ve seen in a game here in three years.”
As many though the game had ended after the second half there was an extra 10 minutes put onto the clock. The extra time was for newcomers who are not expected to see much playing time this year. The crowd had lost interest by then and it did not help that they played poorly. “I wish Christian was able to play, he would take Frostburg to another level,” one bystander stated. He was referring transfer Christian Jackson, who also unable to play because of an ankle injury. Jackson played at the University of Manhattan and Bowie State before land here in Frostburg.
Frostburg has a potential this year, even after losing a lot of leadership from last year’s team. I hope that they will live up to that potential and raise a banner for basketball that supporters have been waiting for over the last decade.
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