BALTIMORE, Md. – Karonn Davis had a career-night in the final home game of his career but it was not enough as the Coppin State men's basketball team dropped its regular season finale to Howard University, 78-71, on Thursday night at the PEC Arena. A graduate student from Philadelphia, Pa., Davis scored a career-high 28 points on 11-of-23 shooting with three 3-pointers. Davis also matched a career-high with nine assists to go with eight rebounds, just missing out on a triple-double.
Prior to the game, Davis along with seniors
Tre' Thomas and
Blake Simpson were honored in a ceremony as they all were playing in the final home games of their collegiate careers. Thomas and Simpson both got starting nods and Thomas recorded two points, a rebound and an assist while Simpson also grabbed a board.
Despite Davis' career-night, Howard had just a little bit more firepower offensively as
Charles Williams scored a game-high 29 points while making 5-of-6 three's (11-of-19 overall) and
RJ Cole finished with 25 points, ten assists and six rebounds.
Cameron Lewis added nine points while
Kyle Foster chipped in with eight points off the bench.
Aside from Davis,
Lamar Morgan made a pair of triples and finished with 14 points to go with a season-high five steals while
Taqwain Drummond once again matched his season-high with ten points.
The game featured six ties and six lead changes with a couple of them coming in the final minutes as Coppin battled back from a 12-point deficit with 15:03 left in regulation. With Howard leading, 52-40 after a jumper by Williams, Coppin went on a 20-6 run over the next 7:43 to take a 60-58 lead after a layup by
Chad Andrews-Fulton with 7:20 to go. Davis led the rally, scoring 11 of the team's 20 points during the stretch.
Williams answered right back with a three to give Howard back the lead before back-to-back layups by Morgan put Coppin back on top, 64-61 with 5:41 to go.
Howard then scored 11 unanswered points to go back up 72-64 with 2:36 remaining but Davis would not let the Eagles go away. Burying back-to-back three's Davis helped Coppin cut the deficit to 72-70 with 1:43 left but the Bison scored six-straight to seal the win.
The Eagles fall to 5-26 with a 5-11 mark in conference play and earn the 11
th seed in next week's MEAC Tournament where they will take on No. 6 North Carolina Central in the first round of the MEAC Tournament on Tuesday, March 6. Tipoff is scheduled for approximately 6:30 pm.
