FORT MYERS, Fla. – CSU women's basketball hung tough with a strong UAB squad for much of the contest but were unable to breakthrough as it fell 86-61 on Thursday night.
Brooke Fields dropped 22 points to lead the Eagles,
Chance Graham provided an additional 20 and
Jalynda Salley recorded her first career double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) while swatting a season-high three blocks to showcase the Eagles top performers.
The Basics
- Final Score: Coppin State 61, UAB 86
- Records: Coppin State 0-11 (0-0 MEAC) / UAB 10-1 (0-0 CUSA)
- Location: Fort Myers, FL – Alico Arena
- Series History: UAB Leads 1-0
How It Happened
First Quarter
- A three-pointer from Tsahai Corbie and a fast-break layup by Chance Graham gave CSU a 5-0 cushion from the jump.
- UAB countered with a 9-4 run to tie the contest at nine.
- The Blazers and Eagles exchanged points before settling on 17 apiece as the final tally of the first quarter.
- Coppin played an exceptionally clean quarter, committing only one foul and four turnovers while forcing seven turnovers from the Blazers.
Second Quarter
- Alabama-Birmingham took a 22-19 advantage on a pair of free throws by Deanna Kuzmanic before Brooke Fields drained a three to tie it up and Jalynda Salley swished a short-range jumper to retake the lead, 24-22 CSU.
- UAB returned the favor with five unanswered to go into the media timeout with a 27-24 upper-hand, 27-24 Blazers.
- Coppin got back within one, 30-29, but Alabama-Birmingham outscored CSU 11-6 over the final three minutes to head to the locker rooms up 41-35.
Third Quarter
- The first half of the third quarter was a low-scoring slugfest, as the two sides combined for 12 points going into the media timeout, 48-40 Blazers.
- Free throws ruled the next three minutes, as six of the nine points scored went by way of the charity stripe, 52-45 UAB.
- Coppin State and Alabama-Birmingham played the rest of the third quarter as near equals, with UAB holding a 63-52 lead into the fourth.
Fourth Quarter
- The Blazers went on a 10-4 run to begin the fourth, 73-56 UAB.
- Alabama-Birmingham finished the night on a 13-5 rally to win, 86-61.
Inside the Numbers
- Coppin State had its second-best ball handling performance of the season, committing only nine turnovers over the full 40 minutes.
- Chance Graham tied her career-high for steals in a game with five, while inching closer to 8th place on the Coppin State career rebounding leader board. With her nine boards, she sits ten rebounds away from passing Lisa Briggs (695) in the record books as Graham currently has 686.
- Graham went off for 20 points, nine rebounds, five steals, an assist and a block for Coppin. This is her third 20-point game of the campaign, and her fourth straight contest hitting double-digits.
- Jalynda Salley had a fantastic day, breaking her previous season-high points total from yesterday (10) with 12 points against UAB. The two-game performance in the FGCU Classic were her first double-digit scoring outputs of the season.
- Brooke Fields paced the Lady Eagles in scoring with 22 points on the evening. Fields hit the 20-point plateau for the second time in her past five games in which she's it double-figure points in each.
- Kaiya Coleman has had back-to-back career-best nights in generating assists, tying the mark with four against FGCU before garnering five in the matchup with the Blazers.
- Deanna Kuzmanic led the Blazers in the three major categories; points (17), rebounds (8) and assists (6).
- Rachael Childress and Margaret Whitley were the other UAB players to surpass ten points on the night, accumulating 15 and 12, respectively.
Who's Next?
- Women's basketball will get a chance to spend the holidays with its families as it takes a nine-day break before returning to action on Saturday, December 29 at Old Dominion.
