NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – Coppin State's women's basketball team never trailed and put four players in double figures in a dominant 78-60 road victory at Central Connecticut State on Monday night at Detrick Gymnasium. The Eagles improved to 2-1 on the year while the Blue Devils fell to
Amber Howard hit all three of her 3-pointers and finished 6-of-11 from the field to lead all scorers with a career high 16 points while pulling down a team-high six rebounds.
Karen Nimo finished with 12 points, followed by
Samari Taylor and
Anya George with 11 points apiece.
Rounding out a balanced scoring attack was
Shanaii Gamble with eight and both
Bray'ana Miles and
Delaney Cooper with seven apiece.
Coppin shot an impressive 51.6% from the field, buoyed by going 28-of-50 (56.0%) over the final three quarters where it outscored the Blue Devils, 68-52. The Eagles used a big third quarter where they made 12-of-21 shots with three triples from Howard to pull away with a 29-12 margin.
Defensively, Coppin held the CCSU to just 40.4% shooting, including 12-of-38 (31.5%) over the first three quarters, and outrebounded the hosts, 40-29.
Arly Zapata matched Howard with six rebounds while Taylor blocked a pair of shots. Gambled led all players with four steals, followed by Cooper with three, and both Nimo and George with two.
Holding a 12-10 lead after the first quarter, George hit a pair of early threes in the second quarter, followed by a layup by Nimo to give the Eagles a 25-16 lead at the 4:41 mark of the second. The Blue Devils cut the lead in half before Nimo added a transition layup in the closing seconds as Coppin went into the half with a 33-26 lead.
It was all Eagles in the third as Coppin began to pull away with an 11-2 run, highlighted by a pair of threes from Howard. Howard added a third triple with 1:23 remaining to make it a 58-38 score and she added a putback as time expired in third to make it 62-38.
Coppin maintained the large lead in the fourth, extending the advantage to as many as 66-41 after a steal and breakaway layup by Cooper.
The Eagles will head to Hofstra on Wednesday, November 11 for a 6 pm tipoff on FloCollege and MSG2.
