By Keith Henry
The Coppin State Lady Eagles always seem to do their best in the second half of games. If they could just do their thing in the first half as well.
The Lady Eagles had a miserable shooting first half in which they made three of their 29 field goals. Morgan State scored the first 11 points of the game, but had to hold off a serious Coppin rally on the way to a 63-56 victory at Hill Field House yesterday afternoon.
Coppin State head coach Derek Brown said about the game. “We played with some fear, like a deer in some headlights. It wasn’t that they were scared of the Morgan players. It was just Morgan/Coppin and it’s the aura of that game. It’s a big game and they let that affect them.”
According to Brittany Dodson, this was a better start than their loss to UNC-Greensboro on Wednesday afternoon. “We pretty much came out sluggish against (UNCG). In this game, we really had fire and we came out with intensity and it proved in this first half how well we did.”
The run to begin the first half got better for the Lady Bears as they extended the advantage to 29-5 with 6:38 left on a driving lay-up from point guard Erin Hawkins. On the other hand, Coppin barely got off the ground offensively as they converted only one field goal in the first 14+ minutes of the games. Coppin State (1-4, 0-1 MEAC) couldn’t buy a bucket during that span.
Coppin head coach Derek Brown said about this, “It looked like everything went south for us. We couldn’t make shot, (MSU) was making every shot. So therefore, with our youth, we just got pressed. The more they made, the more we missed because we weren’t taking our time. We were just forcing everything up. Things happen like that when you have a young club and you got to live through games like that.” The Eagles converted more free throws (6) than field goals (3) in the first half to trail Morgan State 35-13 at halftime.
Morgan State (5-3, 1-0 MEAC) continued to pour it on early in the second half as the lead ballooned to 40-15 on a three-pointer from Dodson, who led the Lady Bears with 15 points, with 18:08 left.
But Coppin finally got off the mat and mounted a run, outscoring the Lady Bears 35-15 in a near 16 minute stretch. CSU went to their man to man defense, giving Morgan problems which led to good opportunities on the offensive end. Larissa Carter continues to impress the CSU coaching staff, scoring 18 of her game high 20 points in the second half. A driving lay-up from Carter cut the deficit to 55-50 with 2:29 left in regulation.
Brown said about the run, “We played a good man to man. In the second half, we got a little tougher. We started going inside to Jeanine on offense. She was in foul trouble and didn’t want to foul out. But it’s a mental thing. A lot of this game is mental. As down as we were in the first half mentally, that’s as high as we have gotten in the second half and we just ran out of time. If we had a few more minutes, we could’ve won the game.”
The Lady Bears continued to drive to the hoop late, drawing fouls and making their free throws to help quell the Coppin rally and prevent a disaster from occurring on their home floor. Dodson said about the second half, “We should’ve came back out in the second half just the same way as we did in the first half. We got a little complacent, which is something we cannot do ever. We have a pretty good free throw shooting team. So, we definitely know what we had to do to get to the bucket and get to the free throw line, especially late in the game.”
The Coppin State Lady Eagles always seem to do their best in the second half of games. If they could just do their thing in the first half as well.
The Lady Eagles had a miserable shooting first half in which they made three of their 29 field goals. Morgan State scored the first 11 points of the game, but had to hold off a serious Coppin rally on the way to a 63-56 victory at Hill Field House yesterday afternoon.
Coppin State head coach Derek Brown said about the game. “We played with some fear, like a deer in some headlights. It wasn’t that they were scared of the Morgan players. It was just Morgan/Coppin and it’s the aura of that game. It’s a big game and they let that affect them.”
According to Brittany Dodson, this was a better start than their loss to UNC-Greensboro on Wednesday afternoon. “We pretty much came out sluggish against (UNCG). In this game, we really had fire and we came out with intensity and it proved in this first half how well we did.”
The run to begin the first half got better for the Lady Bears as they extended the advantage to 29-5 with 6:38 left on a driving lay-up from point guard Erin Hawkins. On the other hand, Coppin barely got off the ground offensively as they converted only one field goal in the first 14+ minutes of the games. Coppin State (1-4, 0-1 MEAC) couldn’t buy a bucket during that span.
Coppin head coach Derek Brown said about this, “It looked like everything went south for us. We couldn’t make shot, (MSU) was making every shot. So therefore, with our youth, we just got pressed. The more they made, the more we missed because we weren’t taking our time. We were just forcing everything up. Things happen like that when you have a young club and you got to live through games like that.” The Eagles converted more free throws (6) than field goals (3) in the first half to trail Morgan State 35-13 at halftime.
Morgan State (5-3, 1-0 MEAC) continued to pour it on early in the second half as the lead ballooned to 40-15 on a three-pointer from Dodson, who led the Lady Bears with 15 points, with 18:08 left.
But Coppin finally got off the mat and mounted a run, outscoring the Lady Bears 35-15 in a near 16 minute stretch. CSU went to their man to man defense, giving Morgan problems which led to good opportunities on the offensive end. Larissa Carter continues to impress the CSU coaching staff, scoring 18 of her game high 20 points in the second half. A driving lay-up from Carter cut the deficit to 55-50 with 2:29 left in regulation.
Brown said about the run, “We played a good man to man. In the second half, we got a little tougher. We started going inside to Jeanine on offense. She was in foul trouble and didn’t want to foul out. But it’s a mental thing. A lot of this game is mental. As down as we were in the first half mentally, that’s as high as we have gotten in the second half and we just ran out of time. If we had a few more minutes, we could’ve won the game.”
The Lady Bears continued to drive to the hoop late, drawing fouls and making their free throws to help quell the Coppin rally and prevent a disaster from occurring on their home floor. Dodson said about the second half, “We should’ve came back out in the second half just the same way as we did in the first half. We got a little complacent, which is something we cannot do ever. We have a pretty good free throw shooting team. So, we definitely know what we had to do to get to the bucket and get to the free throw line, especially late in the game.”
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