BALTIMORE – Coppin State's
Anthony Tarke stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and two steals but Coppin State's men's basketball team fell at Morgan State, 92-72, on Saturday afternoon at the Bears' Hill Field House. The Eagles now stand at 3-9 overall and 2-1 in the MEAC while Morgan improves to 6-3 with an identical 2-1 league mark.
The Eagles put five players in double figures, but it was not enough to stop the Bears who shot a whopping 52.5% from the floor compared to just 38.7 for Coppin.
Kyle Cardaci hit four 3-pointers for 12 points while
DeJuan Clayton and
Koby Thomas added ten points.
Yuat Alok got the start in his Eagles debut and recorded ten points, four rebounds, a block and an assist before fouling out.
Nendah Tarke came off the bench and added seven points and
Kenan Sarvan hit a couple triples for six points.
Morgan's big three of De'Torrion Ware, Troy Baxter and Malik Miller all had over 20 points apiece with Ware leading the way with 29. Baxter and Miller had 12 rebounds each and Baxter also blocked six shots.
Coppin held a slim 20-17 lead midway through the first half, but the Bears went on a 12-0 run to go up 29-20 with 6:58 remaining in the period. The Eagles regrouped after a timeout and managed to cut the deficit to just 37-35 after a breakaway dunk by Thomas but the Bears scored the last five points to go up 42-35 at halftime.
Coming out of the break, the Eagles found Alok inside as he scored eight early points, giving CSU at 50-46 advantage at the 16:19 mark.
The Bears once again went on a long run, scoring 11 unanswered points to go up 57-50. Cardaci stopped the bleeding with a three just seconds later, but the four point margin was as close as the Eagles got the rest of the way as Morgan continued its hot shooting and was able to make 14-of-17 free throws in the period.
The same two teams will meet tomorrow afternoon in a 2 pm tipoff at Hill Field House.
