Lewiston, N.Y. – Coppin State women's basketball came storming back from an ten-point hole with under six minutes to play, but a clutch jumper from Niagara's
Adila Gathers with five seconds left gave the Purple Eagles a 71-69 victory.
Chance Graham dropped 31 points on the Purple Eagles while setting a new career-best with 22 rebounds and tied another career-high with five steals on the day.
The Basics
- Final Score: Coppin State 69, Niagara 71
- Records: Coppin State 0-9 (0-0 MEAC) / Niagara 3-6 (0-0 MAAC)
- Location: Lewiston, NY – Gallagher Center
- Series History: Niagara Leads 1-0
How It Happened
First Quarter
- Niagara jumped out first with a three by Maggie McIntyre to take a 5-2 lead.
- A Tsahai Corbie triple knotted the score at five before Chance Graham lit up the Gallagher Center, outscoring the Purple Eagles by herself 9-7 over the next 16 points to make it 14-12, CSU.
- Graham would then pass the torch to senior Brooke Fields, who proceeded to knock down the next eight Lady Eagles points to end the first quarter and gave Coppin a 22-16 advantage.
- Fields and Graham combined for 17 of Coppin State's 22 first quarter points, with the other five coming off Corbie's three-pointer and a game-opening layup by Oluwadamilola Oloyede.
- Maraiyah Smith was the mastermind behind the scoring barrage, as she accounted for a season-high 4 assists in the first quarter alone, one shy of her career-high.
Second Quarter
- All the momentum that CSU gained at the end of the first quarter was immediately flipped to the home side, as Niagara put together an absurd 18-2 stretch where Coppin missed 13 consecutive shot attempts and turned the ball over four times, 34-24 Niagara.
- Smith's triple with 1:24 left broke the drought and a Graham layup wrapped up the Eagles scoring for the first half, with Niagara taking a nine-point lead into halftime, 38-29 NU.
Third Quarter
- The unbalanced scoring of the first half started to even out, as the defensive adjustments coming out of the break yielded a 11-8 Coppin State run, 46-40 Niagara.
- Both schools kept the other close throughout the whole third quarter with Coppin winning the quarter 22-21 to maintain within striking distance, 59-51 NU.
Fourth Quarter
- The Purple Eagles seemed to be putting the game on ice after two Jai Moore free throws put NU ahead by 10, 67-57.
- DeWayne Burroughs' bunch was not about to bow out, answering the call with ten unanswered to level the playing field at 67 with two minutes remaining.
- The Eagles and Purple Eagles exchanged layups until Adila Gathers hit the dagger from 20-feet out to seal the win for Niagara with five seconds to go, 71-69 NU.
Inside the Numbers
- Coppin State had its best performance from the free throw line this season, converting 20-of-21 for a 95% conversion rate.
- Chance Graham jumped up three spots to 9th on the Coppin State all-time rebounds list after her 22-rebound performance, giving her 662 in her career. She passed Jennifer Martin (642), Talia Sutton (654), and Jackie Johnson-Stewart (656) and will now set her sights on the 8th place slot only 33 boards away.
- Graham's 31-point outburst was her best scoring game of the year, to go along with a career-high 22 rebounds and five steals.
- 45% was the number of the day for Graham, as that was the percentage of her shots she made from the floor (9-of-20) as well as the amount of the team's total scoring production (31 of 69 total points).
- Maraiyah Smith set her new season-high mark with four assists, with all her production coming in the first quarter.
- Brooke Fields eclipsed the double-digit mark for points for her third consecutive contest, and fourth out of her last five as she went for 18 points.
- Oluwadamilola Oloyede tied her season-best for points and rebounds, providing six of each.
- Four Purple Eagles players hit the double-figure plateau, as Jai Moore (18), Kharysma Bryant (14), Maggie McIntyre (11), and Dagny Davidsdottir (11) all were major contributors on the offense.
Who's Next?
- Coppin will escape from the freezing temperatures of Ohio, Minnesota, and Niagara to enjoy the sunny beaches of Florida for the FGCU Classic. Games will consist of the host Florida Gulf Coast Eagles on Wednesday at 5 p.m. and a neutral site contest with the UAB Blazers on Thursday at 5 p.m.
