CHICAGO- Coppin State's men's basketball team drops its season opener to Loyola Chicago Tuesday night at Gentile Arena. After falling to the Eagles in 2019, the Ramblers defeated Coppin 103-45.
Coppin State's
Jesse Zarzuela led all Eagles in points with eight while
Nendah Tarke,
Tyree Corbett, and
Mike Hood had seven points apiece.
Nathaniel Stokes led the team in rebounds with six, while
Sita Conteh had five. CSU saw its bench score 21 points.
Kyle Cardaci and
Daniel Titus recorded two assists each.
The Ramblers had six players scoring in double figures and outscored the Eagles early in the first half and never looked back. The Eagles physicality is what kept them in the game, as they drew nine fouls placing them in an early bonus. Coppin shot 74-percent from the free-throw line, in correlation to Loyola's 64-percent from the line.
Loyola opened up the game on a 14-2 run before Zaruela scored for the Eagles. The Ramblers went on another scoring run to go up 30-3 before a layup in the paint by
Mike Hood gave the Eagles five points. Free throws from
Kyle Cardaci and
Justin Steers gave CSU a score of 40-9. A huge three from
Mike Hood sparked the Eagles as they scored six more points to go into the half.
Down 35, CSU started the second half strong, outscoring Loyola 16-12. Coppin's momentum in the second half was deflated by a 24-point Loyola run, including two threes by Ryan Schwieger and three layups by Ramblers leading scorer Aher Uguak.
Coppin State stays in Chicago to face DePaul tomorrow, November 10 inside the Wintrust Arena. Jump ball is slated for 9 pm ET.
