Durham, NC – Coppin State outscored #9 Duke University 43-36 in the second half of the Eagles season opener; but it was not enough to make up for the first half. The Eagles fell to #9 Duke 71-81. Redshirt seniors
DeJuan Clayton (Bowie, MD) and
Anthony Tarke (Gaithersburg, MD) led the Eagles by scoring 22 points each.
The Eagles took an early lead on the Blue Devils as redshirt freshman
Kenan Sarvan (Heeze, Netherlands) got things started by hitting a three pointer thirty-six seconds into the game and then following up with a layup almost a minute later. Clayton would extend the lead to 7-2 after hitting a pair of free throws. Senior
Koby Thomas (Philadelphia. PA) would join in on the early action and give Coppin it's largest lead of the day by hitting a three-pointer and extending the lead to 10-4.
The Blue Devils would then go on 8-2 run to knot the score at 12 apiece with 14:36 left in the first half. Coppin State would end up taking the lead two more times. The final Coppin lead would be courtesy of
Anthony Tarke who would hit another three pointer with 12:33 remaining to give Coppin a 17-14 lead.
Blue Devils Jalen Johnson and DJ Steward would begin to lead Duke on a 31-11 run that would close out the first half with Duke leading 45-28.
Coppin would use the second half to play catch-up on with the Blue Devils by taking advantage of missed shots and early turnovers. The Eagles scored the first 8 points of the half. Thomas and Clayton would each hit a three pointer with a Tarke dunk in-between. Steward's layup would break up the Eagles 8-0 run at the 17:45 mark.
The Eagles would get as close as 6 points several times throughout the second half trying to close in on Duke. With 12:22 remaining in the game, Tarke would feed the ball to Thomas who would hit a three, cutting the score 52-58. Clayton would later hit two free throws at the 9:43 mark trimming Duke's lead again to 54-60. Clayton would end up shooting 100% from the free throw line as he hit two more with 8:03 remaining and moving the score to 56-62.
Duke would manage to keep the Eagles out of reach with defensive rebounding by Johnson and by outscoring the Eagles 19-15 in the last 8 minutes of the game to notch the 71-81 victory.
The Eagles return to play on Thursday, December 3 at local rival Towson University. Tippoff is at 7pm.
