Morgan’s Late Three Lifts Men’s Hoops Past NC Central in Battle of the Eagles

DURHAM, N.C. – Lamar Morgan hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 32.2 seconds left to lift the Coppin State's men's basketball team to a 64-60 victory at North Carolina Central on Saturday afternoon at McDougald-Mclendon Arena. This was CSU's first victory in Durham since January 16, 2008 after losing five-straight games at NC Central.

The Basics

• Final Score: Coppin State 64, NC Central 60
• Records: Coppin State 3-17 (3-2 MEAC) / NC Central 8-10 (3-1 MEAC)
• Location: Durham, N.C. (McDougald-Mclendon Arena)
• Series History: NC Central Leads, 10-4

How It Happened
First Half 

• Lamar Morgan hit a pair of early three's to give Coppin a 6-1 lead but after a tip-in by Chad Andrews-Fulton put CSU on top, 8-3, NC Central scored ten-straight points to go up, 13-8 with 12:45 left.
• Kent Auslander stopped the bleeding as he drove baseline for a dunk but NCCU answered with a three.
• Brendan Medley-Bacon answered with a three-point play in the low post to cut the lead in half at the 11:20 mark.
• Central stayed in control of a small lead but three's by Lucian Brownlee, Dejuan Clayton and Morgan gave Coppin a 26-21 lead with 3:41 to go.
• NCCU responded with seven-straight points to regain the lead but Andrews-Fulton made a layup just before the final buzzer, tying the game at 28 going into the half.

 Second Half 

• Cedric Council (5 points, 6 rebounds) put CSU on top, 30-28, with a layup coming out of the break but NC Central scored seven-straight to take a 35-30 lead with 14:25 remaining.
• A layup by Brendan Medley-Bacon and a jumper by Kent Auslander cut the deficit to a single point but NCCU extended the lead back to as many as 47-40 at the 7:46 mark.
• Coppin went back inside to Medley-Bacon, its 7-footer and the freshman from Baltimore converted on back-to-back buckets to keep CSU at arm's length.
• NC Central got its lead back to 54-48 with just over four minutes left but Morgan then drove the hole and converted on a three-point play at the under-4 media.
• After the timeout, CSU forced a timeout and Dejuan Clayton made NCCU pay with a pair of free throws.
• Central got those points back seconds later but Clayton hit two more free throws and then made a layup with 1:23 remaining to tie the score at 58 and forcing a timeout by the hosts.
• CSU forced a miss and after rebounding its own missed shot, Morgan buried a triple from the corner with 32.2 seconds left, giving Coppin its first lead since the opening bucket of the second half.
• NCCU called a timeout after the three but Coppin forced a timeout, leading to a free throw by Clayton with 18 ticks to go.
• On the other end, Clayton stripped Central's Julian Walters and converted on a pair of free throws with seconds left to seal the win.

Inside the Numbers 

• Lamar Morgan finished with 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting and four 3-pointers to go with seven rebounds.
• Dejuan Clayton scored a team-high 16 points for the Eagles while making 9-of-11 free throws.  Thirteen of his points and all of his free throws came in the second half.
• Brendan Medley-Bacon added a season-high 11 points on 5-of-7 from the floor to go with seven rebounds which matches a season-high.
• Chad Andrews-Fulton also chipped in with eight points to go with a team-high nine rebounds.
• Coppin forced a season-high 20 turnovers and converted that into 22 points.  CSU also had a 23-11 advantage on second-chance points.
• Larry McKnight had 22 points to lead NC Central while Jibri Blount finished with 21.

Who's Next?

• Coppin State completes its North Carolina MEAC swing on Monday, January 21 at North Carolina A&T for a 7:30 pm tipoff.