Men’s Basketball Midnight Madness

On Thursday, Nov. 10, the men’s and women’s basketball team held a Midnight Madness event in Bobcat Arena as a preview for this year’s season.  Many people were in the crowd to show support for both teams.  Everybody from students, faculty, administrators, local Frostburg community, many football players and their coaches came out to support another rising Bobcat sports team.

To start off the night, both teams performed in an inner-team scrimmage.  The Frostburg men’s team tried to excite the crowd with their fast paced offense, getting many transition three pointers and electrifying dunks.  Both teams did an excellent job to try to entertain the crowd with the scrimmage, but it was a hard feat as there was something else the crowd wanted to see: the three-point and the dunk contests.

These events are looked forward to by both teams. There were two rounds, seven players started but only two would move on to the next round.  Tyler Michael, Christopher Coston, Jeffrey McMorris, Daniel Alexander, Raphael Okoye, Dalton Gaus, and 5’9 Lawrence Pettis Jr. all participated and performed well in the contest, but only Christopher Coston and Raphael Okoye moved on.

In the final round, Coston, one of the most athletic players on the team, did a powerful windmill dunk off of two feet that made the crowd lean back in excitement.  Next up, Okoye tried a baseline windmill that would have made many people run on the court, but unfortunately missed, giving Coston bragging rights as the best dunker on the team.  The crowd was buzzing as they saw some exhilarating dunks; some things we did not know could be done.

Last, but definitely not least, was the three-point contest.  The anticipation had everyone on the edge of their seats at the beginning, and the excitement only grew exponentially towards the end.

Gregory Gibbs, Rhashad Johnson, Jake Wiegand, Steven Glasbrenner, Andrew Kwaitkowski, and Dalton Gaus were participants, but just like the dunk contest, there would be two rounds and only two would continue onto the next round.

Kwaitkowski caught the attention of the crowd in the first round as he made more than half of his shots, stringing together more than five makes in a row at times.  Making it to the next round, Kwaitkowski turned into the crowd favorite as he went up against Wiegand.

The game started out close, so close that the whole crowd was on its feet.  If Wiegand made a shot,Kwaitkowski matched it.  Everyone was cheering, getting louder and louder after every made shot. Wiegand and Kwaitkowski round out to the last spot tied, with three shots left each. Kwaitkowski made one, Wiegand made one,Kwaitkowski made one,Wiegand made one. Everyone went crazy for the last shot to see who would win.  It was tied with the one shoot left! Wiegand and Kwaitkowski both shot at the same time, Kwaitkowski missed, Wiegand’s shot hit nothing but the bottom of the net!  The crowd went crazy and ran onto the court in excitement to congratulate Wiegand on his notable win.

The team closed the event with some crowd interaction and announced the team’s season opener on Nov. 15 in Bobcat Arena against Mount Aloysius.  They hope to see you there!