CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Eagles battled East Tennessee State in a 70-58 neutral site loss on Tuesday, December 20th at the Watsco Center in the Hurricane Holiday Tournament.
Coppin State finished with their second highest scoring total of the season and had their top rebounding (47) and field goal attempts (70) games against Tennessee State.
Three Eagles starters scored in double-digits led by graduate
Tiara Goode's 18 points. Goode made seven field goals including two three-pointers. She added eight rebounds, an assist, block and steal. Senior
Keena Samuels had 14 points finishing with five made field goals and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. Samuels dished out a team-high three assist, had two rebounds and a steal. Graduate
Vanessa Neal was the other Eagle to reach double figure scoring with 11 points.
Freshman
Chance Graham finished with 11 rebounds tying her season-best performance. Junior
Oluwaseun Adeniji tied a career-high with five points and defended the paint with a pair of blocked shots and junior
Candice Beverly recorded a career-high seven rebounds.
ETSU made five first quarter three-pointers jumping out to an early lead over the Eagles. CSU managed only four made field goals and trailed 20-9 after the first period. Goode came alive in the next quarter hitting a pair of three's while Adeniji got to the charity stripe hitting 3-of-4 attempts. CSU defended the long ball as ETSU went 1-for-5 from three-point range in the second quarter with only five made field goals. A pair of late free-throws by Adeniji trimmed the lead to single digits (34-25) prior to halftime.
Samuels took over the scoring load in the third quarter with ten points rallying the Eagles comeback. Coppin State held ETSU to 23% shooting from the field and shot 38% themselves. ETSU led by 13 (45-32) with 2:38 left in the quarter before the Eagles went on 9-0 run to end the period. Samuels scored seven points in the final two minutes and the ETSU lead shrunk to four (45-41) approaching the fourth quarter.
CSU's attempt at a come-from-behind win fell short with ETSU making 9-of-12 shots in the fourth quarter. The Eagles only made five shots from the field paced by Goode's eight points on 3-of-5 made shots. Neal made a three-pointer and the Eagles converted on 6-of-8 free-throws. Coppin State trailed by double-digits with six minutes to go and ETSU held on for a 70-58 victory.
Three scored in double figures for ETSU led by Tianna Tarter's 23 points. Shamauria Bridges added 21 points and Carley Lytton contributed ten points off of the bench.
Coppin State returns to action on Wednesday, Dec. 28th at North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC at 2 p.m.
