BALTIMORE – Coppin State's men's basketball team dropped its final non-conference game of the season to UMBC on Monday night at PEC Arena, falling by a 93-59 margin. The Eagles fell to 2-15 overall while the Retrievers improved to 7-6 on the season.
Khali Horton and
Hussain Williams led Coppin with nine points apiece, followed by
Favour Aire with eight, and a trio of players in
Torrin Andrews, Jamari Piercy and
Hassan Perkins with seven points each. Piercy and
Baasil Saunders were credited with a team-high five rebounds while combining for five blocks and Perkins dished out five assists.
DJ Armstrong had a career-high 31 points with eight-pointers to lead the Retrievers who made an impressive 14-of-29 shots from deep, including going 9-of-9 from three to open the second half. UMBC outshot Coppin, 52.4% to 36.8% and outrebounded the Eagles, 45-28 while scoring 23 second-chance points.
UMBC opened the game on a 16-2 run over the first 5:28 before Coppin got on track with three 3-pointers, coming from Williams and Horton. The Eagles closed the half with seven-straight points over the final 1:26, starting with a pair of free throws by Perkins, a layup from
Tyler Koenig and the second of two 3-pointers from Aire.
Armstrong and Ace Valentine sandwiched a layup by Saunders to open the second half and extend UMBC's lead into double digits. The Retrievers then went on a long surge with seven more threes to pull away and never looked back.
CSU opens MEAC play on Saturday, January 3 at Delaware State, starting at approximately 4:30 pm on ESPN+.
