Box Score BALTIMORE –
Michael Murray fearlessly kept attacking the basket and
Taariq Cephas continued draining shots from deep. Coppin State ignored the clock and its deficit. They played with passion, energy, determination and turned in an effort to be proud of.
Unfortunately, time expired with the Eagles on the short end of a 78-69 loss to Morgan State in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) men's basketball game inside of the raucous Hill Field House Wednesday night before a standing room only crowd. The Eagles had sliced a 10-point deficit to four points with less than two minutes remaining.
Murray posted his second straight double-double (21 points, 11 rebounds) and
Dallas Gary finished with a career-high 16 points to lead the Eagles (9-17 overall, 6-7 MEAC). For Murray it was his fifth double-double of the season and third in Coppin State's last four games. Four of his double-doubles have been on the road this season. Also for Murray, it was the seventh time this season he has scored at least 20 points.
"We played real hard, aggressive tonight," Murray said. "We had some letdowns in transition. There's no reason why we should have lost tonight. We just have to bounce back from this. We're a really good team and we just have to click at the right time. We've had our ups and downs this season, but we're still confident that we can finish strong."
Cephas scored 11 points and handed out six assists. He has 23 helpers in the Eagles last three games.
Sterling Smith added 10 points for Coppin State, the 15th time this season he has finished in double digits scoring.
"I was real proud of my guys effort tonight," Coppin State head men's basketball coach Ron "Fang" Mitchell said. "I told them that they needed to play with energy and that good things would start happening for them. They played with a lot of energy today. The guys are disappointed right now, but the effort was there."
Smith drained a deep deuce early in the second half to give Coppin State its largest lead of the game, 44-37, with 16 minutes, 53 seconds remaining. The Eagles appeared in control and were performing confidently. There were no signs of any danger for the Eagles, who enjoyed a 35-32 halftime lead.
Morgan State (11-13, 9-3) took control of the contest with a 23-6 burst that gave it a 60-50 edge with 10:39 remaining.
During the first half, Coppin State packed plenty of entertaining moments to keep their fans excited. Murray and Gary threw down back-to-back dunks that had Coppin fans dancing in the aisles. On Murray's two-handed flush, Cephas delivered a beautiful no-look pass to Murray, who was behind him. Smith made a 3-pointer with 3:41 remaining in the first half to give Coppin State a 30-28 lead. The Eagles never trailed again in the first half.
Gary made all of five of his shots in the first half to finish with 11 points.
Brandon St. Louis was a rebounding machine in the opening half as he finished with eight boards.
"We're trying to stay positive," Gary said. "It was a real tough game just with all the emotion built into it because it's a rivalry game. We know there are some positive things that we can take from this game into the rest of our season. We rebounded and played better defense. It's just that the game got away from us in the second half because we didn't get back in transition and they got a lot of easy baskets."
Morgan State made 29-of-58 shots, the third straight game it shot at least 50 percent. Justin Black scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half. He also added 10 assists. Ian Chiles had 14 points and Shaquielle Duncan scored 12 points for the Bears.
"The players recognize that they gave up way too many transition baskets where we didn't get back and it was just for a spurt where they rallied," Mitchell said. "But for a majority of the game, I can't complain about the effort and how we played. We need to continue playing like this because Morgan is one of the top teams in the conference. We're capable of doing some good things, the guys just have to believe in themselves."
Coppin State returns to action Saturday afternoon when it begins a season-ending three-game homestand against Norfolk State at 4:00 p.m.
