AKRON, Ohio – Four Coppin State men's basketball players reached double figures during an 79-62 setback to the University of Akron in a non-conference men's basketball game at Rhodes Arena Saturday night.
Junior
Sterling Smith led Coppin State with 16 points, the seventh straight game he has reached double digits in scoring. Smith also added seven rebounds in 35 minutes of action.
Arnold Fripp added 14 points and eight rebounds.
Christian Kessee contributed 11 points for Coppin State (1-14 overall).
Dallas Gary added nine points off the bench for CSU.
Senior guard
Taariq Cephas enjoyed a career night. He recorded his second career-double with 12 points and a career-high 10 rebounds before fouling out. He also complemented his performance with eight assists and a career-high seven steals in 29 minutes.
"I thought we played hard and gave a great effort," Coppin State coach
Michael Grant said. "We really competed. We have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball. Many of our turnovers tonight, they scored off of them. Taariq played well tonight and I thought this was one of his better games tonight."
Even though Cephas moved into fourth place all-time in school history in assists, he wasn't pleased with his effort because it didn't lead to a win. Cephas upped his career total to 363 to move past Allen Watson and Sidney Goodman.
For the second consecutive game, Coppin State had difficulties protecting the basketball, finishing with 22 turnovers, 11 above its season average. CSU has 48 turnovers in its last two games combined.
Part of the turnover problem has been the absence of senior guard
Daquan Brickhouse, who has sat out the last two games. His absence has scrambled Grant's rotations and forced Cephas to handle the ball more than normal as well as play more minutes.
Cephas did well against Akron's heat as he only turned the ball over once.
"With Brickhouse out right now, it's really hurting us," Grant said. "We have to find a way to get Taariq more rest during the game or at least to be able to relieve him. We just have to continue to get better. I really liked Taariq's aggressiveness tonight."
Even though Coppin State won the rebounding battle, 42-33, it made a season-low six 3-pointers. In addition, the Eagles couldn't recover from a 28-9 Akron burst during a seven-minute stretch of the first half. Leading 15-13 with 10 minutes, 54 seconds remaining, Coppin State committed nine turnovers, which proved to be the difference in the game.
While Coppin State was shaken by the run and trailed 41-23 with 3:21 remaining in the first half, the Eagles finished with a 12-2 sprint to close to within, 43-33, at intermission. However, the closest the Eagles could get in the second half was 45-38 with 16:54 remaining following a pair of Smith foul shots.
Coppin State closed to within 10 points on three different occasions in the second half. Another factor in the game was the distribution of scoring. Coppin State received scoring from five players while Akron had 11 different players score led by Isaiah Johnson's 13 points. The Zips (9-4) also made 11 3-pointers and outscored Coppin's bench 46-9..
Coppin State returns to action next Saturday when it visits Howard University in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) contest at 4:00 p.m.
