Balanced Eagles soar past Morgan State

BALTIMORE -- During a four-minute stretch of the first half, Coppin State's Sterling Smith transferred his shooting superpowers to Taariq Cephas.
 
Cephas drained four consecutive 3-pointers during a breathtaking shooting display that helped Coppin State erase a few first-half deficits, gain control of the contest and eventually claim an 88-77 victory over rival Morgan State in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) men's basketball game at Hill Field House Saturday afternoon.
 
Cephas finished with 20 points and six rebounds to help Coppin State (7-21 overall, 6-9 MEAC) sweep a season series from Morgan State (7-22, 5-10) for the first time since the 2003-04 season. Smith led five Coppin State players in double figures with 21 points, his third straight contest with at least 20+ points. Smith has hit for at least 20 points in six of CSU's last nine games.
 
Dallas Gary tied his career-high with 18 points while grabbing a team-high nine rebounds. Christian Kessee added 11 points and Daquan Brickhouse scored 10 points for the Eagles, who won their second consecutive road game.
 
Cephas' surge was the difference as CSU wiped out a 28-23 deficit with nine minutes remaining before intermission. Cephas scored 12 points during Coppin State's 16-6 run that turned the game around in the Eagles favor. Gary's dunk following a missed shot during the run with 5:59 remaining gave Coppin State its first lead and the advantage for good, 33-32.
 
Cephas was 6-for-7 shooting from the field in the opening half. He made all five of his career-high tying 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes. In addition, Cephas upped his career point total to 1,051 points to move past Earl Lee and into 19th place all-time on the CSU scoring list.
 
"It feels good sweeping a rival," Cephas said. "I think we played well tonight and it was probably one of our best games all season. I am most happy about the fact that we had five guys score in double figures because that means a lot of people contributed."
 
Coppin State was efficient on offense as it made 50.8 percent of its shots (30-for-59) and 57.1 percent from 3-point distance (12-of-21). In its first meeting against Morgan State on Feb. 2, Coppin State was 4-for-16 from 3-point distance for the game. The Eagles had five triples 13 minutes into the game.
 
Coppin State sank 12 3-pointers for the second straight game, the 21st time this season it has made at least nine 3-pointers in a game. The Eagles have made double-digit 3-pointers in a single game 15 times this season, including 10 of their last 11 contests.
 
While Cephas helped Coppin State to a 51-43 halftime advantage, Arnold Fripp, Smith, Gary, Kessee and Brickhouse all helped the Eagles maintain control during the second half. Morgan State made a few runs at Coppin State and closed to within, 82-76, with 2:24 remaining.
 
Coppin State scored six straight points to close the game. Appropriately, it was a Cephas short pull-up jumper with 56 seconds remaining that expanded CSU's lead to 86-76 and sent the Morgan State fans heading to the exits.

Andrew Hampton led four Morgan State players in double figures with 18 points. Cedric Blossom had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Kyle Thomas (15 points), Torin Childs-Harris (11 points, seven rebounds) and Emmanuel Matey (11 assists) had key moments during the game.
 
Coppin State, which sits in ninth place in the MEAC standings, concludes its regular season schedule with a home contest against Delaware State beginning at 7:30 p.m. Coppin State defeated Delaware State 96-92 in Dover on Feb. 16.