BALTIMORE, Md. – The Eagles dropped their fifth consecutive conference game falling to North Carolina Central 86-77 at home on Monday, February 6
th. Freshmen
Dejuan Clayton led Coppin State in scoring for the eighth time this season with 20 points and five assists.
Coppin State drops to 5-20 overall and 4-6 in the MEAC while North Carolina Central moves to 17-6 and 8-1 in the conference.
Three finished with double figure scoring with
Dejuan Clayton recording his third 20 point game of the year on 5-of-10 shots from the field and 7-of-9 made free-throws. Clayton tied a season-high with nine attempted free-throws and also made three shots from long range as Coppin State finished with ten or more made three-pointers for the fourth time this season. Junior
Tre' Thomas scored 15 points hitting 6-of-13 field goals and 3-of-7 three-pointers. Senior
Keith Shivers added 14 points, five rebounds and three made shots from beyond three-point territory. Shivers tied a career-high with three made three-pointers on six attempts. Junior
Chas Brown tallied a game-high nine rebounds with nine points and senior
Joseph Gripper led the CSU bench with six points, two assists and two steals. Gripper made a season-high three field goals.
NCCU led 7-2 within the first six minutes of the game until Thomas made his first three-pointer to bring the Eagles closer. Brown followed up with a dunk after a great defensive play by the Eagles to tie the game (7-7). Shivers gave CSU their first and only lead of the night (9-7) at the 12:33 mark before NCCU went on a run of their own. Central answered by going on a 24-2 run by the 6-minute mark to take a commanding 31-11 advantage.
Coppin State struggled from the field on 29-percent shooting in the first half while North Carolina Central was a blazing 59-percent. NCCU also made seven three-pointers as CSU settled for 2-of-12 shooting. Senior
Terry Harris Jr. scored all six of his points in the first half with Coppin State trailing 42-27 at the half.
Clayton paced the Eagles offense in the second half pouring in 19 points with five assists. He was 5-for-8 from the field including 3-for-6 from three-point land. At the charity stripe he was a perfect 6-for-6. Thomas made a pair of three-pointers scoring ten second half points. Shivers added nine points and Brown had five points. The Eagles offensive production increased from 29-percent in the first half to 46-percent in the second. They also made eight threes in the final twenty minutes.
At the beginning of the second half CSU brought the deficit to single digits with four straight three-pointers. Clayton made back-to-back threes making it an eight point game (46-38) with under 16-minutes left to play. Senior
Joshua Treadwell made the third and Shivers buried the fourth bringing the game to within three points (47-44) with 13:27 left to go. That was the closest the Eagles were able to trim the deficit with NCCU building it back up to double-digits thanks to 18-of-26 made second half free-throws. Down the stretch, Coppin State failed to stop the offensive flow of NCCU and were defeated 86-77.
North Carolina Central had a pair finish with 20+ points in Patrick Cole (27) and Dajun Graf (25). Ron Trapps added 18 points.
Coppin State will host Bethune-Cookman on Saturday, February 11
th at 4 p.m. for their 2017 Homecoming game in the Physical Education Complex.
