BALTIMORE – Coppin State's men's basketball team shot just 30.5% from the floor was outrebounded, 53-32 in a 66-49 loss to UMBC on Sunday afternoon at PEC Arena. The Eagles fall to 1-5 on the season while the Retrievers improve to 4-1.
Koby Thomas led Coppin with 14 points but foul trouble limited him to just 24 minutes.
Kyle Cardaci came off the bench to score a career-high 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting while making three 3-pointers.
Anthony Tarke grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and matched three others with a team-high two assists but was held to seven points.
Dwaine Jones and
Chereef Knox chipped in with six points apiece.
Neither team shot well in the first half as Coppin went into the intermission with a 24-22 lead despite the Eagles leading at one point, 17-4 with 9:19 left in the stanza. After a layup by UMBC cut CSU's lead to 7-4 at the 15:23 mark, Thomas started a 10-0 run with a steal and breakaway slam. A layup in transition by Cardaci followed by a three from Knox capped off the run.
The Retrievers then went on a long run of their own, scoring 14-straight points and taking their first lead of the game at 18-17. The lead changed five times in the final five-plus minutes of the period but a three by Knox with 58 seconds to go made it a 24-22 score.
UMBC came out of the break with nine-straight points to take a 31-24 lead but triples from Cardaci and Tarke cut the deficit to just 37-33 with 14:20 remaining in regulation.
The Retrievers responded, however and extended their lead back to 57-42 on a tip-in by Brandon Horvath with just over five minutes left to seal the victory.
Horvath led UMBC with a double-double 18 points and 14 rebounds to go with four assists and three steals. LJ Owens and Keondre Kennedy added 12 points each.
CSU returns to the hardwood on Saturday, December 19 when it makes the trip to Virginia Tech for a 5:30 pm start in Blacksburg.
