Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – Coppin State senior forward Michael Murray enjoyed a festive opening night of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tournament. He was honored before tip-off against Bethune-Cookman, achieved a significant milestone during the game and celebrated after helping Coppin State defeat the Wildcats, 75-68, at the Scope Arena Tuesday night.
Murray scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the opening 12 minutes to help the Eagles (11-19 overall) end a string of four straight first round defeats in the MEAC tournament. Murray was recognized before the game in a brief ceremony at midcourt after being named to the all-MEAC first team Monday.
Seventh-seeded Coppin State advances to meet No. 2 seed Hampton Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. in a quarterfinal contest. Coppin and Hampton traded victories on each other's home floor this season.
Murray's 15th point of the game with 8 minutes, 38 seconds remaining in the first half was special because he became the 21st Coppin State player in men's basketball history to score 1,000 career points after making the first of two foul shots. Murray has 1,009 career points. He scored 80 points as a freshman, 158 as a sophomore, 383 as a junior, 388 this season.
However, the following the game, the points were secondary to being able to experience the thrill of his first career postseason victory.
"That first round curse has been haunting me every year," Murray said. "It's a big burden off my shoulders to finally get that first-round win. I feel like we can keep rolling going forward."
Murray, who also had eight rebounds and played all 40 minutes, ignited the Eagles early and senior
Arnold Fripp kept the flame burning brightly throughout the game as he posted his first career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Daquan Brickhouse scored 12 points and
Dallas Gary added 10 points for Coppin State.
Late in the game, the Eagles got huge baskets from Brickhouse,
Sterling Smith and Gary to subdue the stubborn Wildcats, who fought back from several deficits to force three ties, the last of which came at 68-68 with 2:17 remaining.
Coppin State turned up the defense and held Bethune-Cookman scoreless.
"Coach always preaches playing defense first before anything," Fripp said. "As a unit we came together after they tied the game and just focused harder on getting stops. Fortunately, it worked out for us."
Gary gave the Eagles the lead for good, 69-68 when he made a foul shot with 1:49 remaining. Brickhouse followed with a short floater in the lane for a 71-68 Coppin State edge with 1:14 left. Then Smith gave the Eagles breathing room by making his only 3-pointer of the game with the shotclock winding down. Smith nailed a triple from the corner just in front of Coppin State's bench with 29 seconds left.
"Dallas has been playing well for us lately," Coppin State head coach Ron "Fang" Mitchell said. "He did a good job for us tonight. He's a tough young man and he took a lot of punishment for us in the middle of their zone. He finished well and we need him in order for us to be successful here."
Bethune-Cookman, which ended the season with a 7-25 record, had three players reach double figures led by Clemmye Owens' 22 points. Maurice Taylor collected 18 points and 14 rebounds for the Wildcats. Mikel Trapp had 14 points and Tony Kynard added nine assists.
Coppin State scored the first six points of the game and never trailed despite several Bethune-Cookman runs. Murray made his first five shots of the game, including a pair of 3-pointers in which one bounced up high on the rim and dropped through the net and another in which the bank was open. When Murray cooled off, Fripp handled the scoring duties as he tallied 12 points in the opening half.
The Eagles shared the ball by finishing with 19 assists on their 24 baskets. Second-leading scorer Andre Armstrong led the way with a career-high six assists. Brickhouse had five assists for Coppin State.
"We went into tonight's game understanding that it was going to be tough," Mitchell said. "We had some problems attacking their zone and we used some penetration. The end of the game came down to us making stops and our guys did a pretty good job of getting the stops we needed to move forward."
