St. Mary's City, Md. – Even though three players scored in double-figures, the St. Mary's College of Maryland women's basketball team could not deny Frostburg State University's fourth straight Capital Athletic Conference victory Saturday afternoon. Sophomore guard Pui Sham (Springfield, Va./West Springfield) recorded season-highs of 18 points, including 15 in the second half, and six three-pointers in the loss.
Senior center Mindy Sharp (Marlinton, W.Va./Pocahontas County), the reigning CAC Player of the Week, led the visiting Bobcats (8-9, 5-3 CAC) to a 74-62 win with her fifth consecutive double-double on 12 points and game-best 14 rebounds. With her 14 boards, Sharp helped Frostburg State out-rebound the Seahawks, 41 to 23.
St. Mary's (7-7, 3-3 CAC) first-half scoring woes continued, as for the third game in a row, the Seahawks notched less than 10 field goals in the first 20 minutes with a 4-of-23 effort today. Frostburg cruised to a 33-19 halftime advantage as the Bobcats shot 12-of-25 from the floor.
Back-to-back bombs by senior forward Lisa Byer (Johnstown, Pa./Conemaugh) put FSU's lead back to 16 (44-28) at 16:21 before sophomore guard Jasmine Jones (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg) sparked a 21-10 Seahawk rally with her jumper just 21 seconds later. The run closed the gap to five with seven minutes left to play.
Despite recording their best second-half field goal percentage of the season with a blistering 62.1%, St. Mary's could get no closer and another Byer long-range shot capped a 6-0 run to return a double-digit margin to the Bobcats with 6:08 remaining.
Joining Sham in double-digits were Jones with 11 and senior forward Jamie Roberts (Rockville, Md./Barrie) with 10. Roberts also added season-bests of six caroms and five assists.
Byer and sophomore guard Stephanie Straka (Jerome, Pa./Conemaugh Twp.) tallied 16 points each for the Bobcats while first-year guard Elaina Hummel (Huntingdon, Pa./Southern Huntingdon) chipped in 13.
St. Mary's hopes to stop its three-game slide on Monday, January 17 as the Seahawks travel to Dover for a conference tilt against Wesley College at 2:00 pm at Wentworth Gymnasium.