NORFOLK, Va. – Standing outside of the locker room in the hallway before Wednesday's quarterfinal victory over Hampton, Coppin State head coach Ron "Fang" Mitchell was excitedly buzzing around like somebody who had a secret he wouldn't share.
Maybe that's because he knew that his team would deliver an inspired performance in knocking off Hampton a few hours later. Mitchell also made the comment that 'this isn't my first rodeo' in reference to getting his squads to perform at a high level in the MEAC tournament. The Eagles have been the darlings of the MEAC tournament. They know they haven't reached their goal, but they are savoring the first two steps because they have been pretty fun.
The next step in Coppin State's journey will come against crosstown rival and third-seeded Morgan State in the second semifinal game Friday night at the Scope Arena. Fourth-seeded Norfolk State will meet No. 1 seed North Carolina Central in the opening game of Friday night's semifinal session at 6 p.m. The two winners will collide in Saturday's MEAC championship game with a ticket to the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship on the line at 6 p.m. The championship game will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
Coppin State is in the semifinals for the first time since 2008. The Eagles are 9-4 overall in MEAC tournament semifinal games. This will be the seventh postseason meeting against the Bears. Coppin State is 4-2 all-time in the MEAC tournament against Morgan State. The teams last MEAC tournament meeting was also in the 2009 semifinal round with Morgan State earning a 75-67 victory.
Coppin State is the only MEAC school with its men's and women's teams in the semifinals. The CSU women will meet North Carolina A&T at 2:30 p.m.
Morgan State and Coppin State met twice during a nine-day period last month. The Bears won 82-77 on the road on Feb. 10 and 78-69 at home on Feb. 19. In the two games against Coppin State, Morgan's Justin Black averaged 22.5 points and made 56.7 percent of his shots. Ian Chiles also enjoyed success against the Eagles this season as he averaged 18.5 points and 6.5 rebounds while making 58.2 percent of his shots. Anthony Hubbard shot 62.5 percent while scoring 11.5 points.
The Eagles are a different team now. They have won three games in a row and are playing with more confidence. The Eagles are also getting stops and playing together as a team, getting contributions from everybody Mitchell puts into the game.
The Eagles have won two games in the MEAC tournament without a point from
Andre Armstrong, their second leading scorer. It's a formula that's worked so far, but everybody knows it's only a matter of time before the dynamic scoring machine detonates. Fortunately, the Eagles haven't been reliant on one player to carry the load. In each of its first two tournament games, somebody different has stepped up for Coppin State.
First team All-MEAC selection
Michael Murray scored 24 points to lead Coppin State to a 75-68 win over Bethune-Cookman in an opening round game on Tuesday.
Arnold Fripp sprang off the bench to add 16 points. In the 83-77 win over Hampton,
Taariq Cephas scored 24 points and
Dallas Gary contributed a career-high 17 points in the win.
In addition,
Sterling Smith and
Daquan Brickhouse have each averaged 10.5 points per game in the two wins this week. Smith made some clutch 3-point shots late in the second half that have made a difference. Brickhouse has been a rock at the point guard position.
Against Hampton, the Eagles displayed tremendous resolve and character in overcoming a late six-point deficit to win the game. The Eagles are also getting the job defensively especially late in games when it matters. Coppin State has owned the last five minutes of its two tournament games by outscoring Bethune-Cookman and Hampton, 35-21.
"It means a lot that we have a chance to continue working toward accomplishing our goal," Gary said. "Even though we're not one of the top seeds in this tournament, we knew coming in here that we could play with anybody in this conference and it takes a good stretch of basketball of staying together and playing tough defense. It feels good to win two games, but we didn't come here to win two games. We came here to win a championship."
Coppin State's defense will need to be at its best to
slow
down Black, a first team All-MEAC selection. Black scored 21 of his game-high 29 points in the second half and Chiles spearheaded the defense as Morgan State defeated Florida A&M, 81-68 in the quarterfinals. Black connected on 10 of 14 from the floor while adding nine rebounds and three assists to his stat line.
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