Coppin pounds Howard

by Keith Henry

The Coppin State Eagles found a way to bounce back at the PEC last night. Aggressiveness on defense and inside the paint on offense were the keys to the Eagles' 84-53 smackdown of the Howard Bison.

One of the keys on the night was the comeback of Michael Harper from his one game suspension for violating team rules. The junior came back with a vengeance leading everyone with 18 points. CSU head coach Ron "Fang" Mitchell had a big smile on his face once Harper's name was mentioned saying, "Michael handled business off the court and he definitely handled it when he came back on the court. He came back and played hard today."

Lee said about the good play inside the paint, "After the last couple of losses we took, I made it clear to the guys, including our big men that we need points in the paint. They stepped up this game. I'm happy about that."

The defense stepped up to the plate this game as well. Coppin State (6-8, 1-2 MEAC) limited Howard to 37% shooting from the field in the game.

Jordan Lee said,"Every game, Coach Fang stresses defense and we finally came through for him."

Though Coppin did get off to their somewhat customary bad start, the fellas bounced back soon after that. The Eagles turned a 7-2 early deficit into a 21-11 lead that was never threatened with 7:52 left in the first half.

Coppin State forced 21 Howard turnovers in the game, 12 of those were on steals. Offensively, Coppin converted 54% of their shots on the night.

If they continue to be consistent like this, they'll be a real problem for the MEAC once again. Akeem Ellis said this much about themselves, "It's going to be a problem once we really start gelling. We're just showing everybody in the (MEAC) that we aren't the team to mess with."

Howard (2-13, 0-3 MEAC) started off well but once Coppin made that run in the first half, they hardly stood a chance. The Bison trailed 36-23 at the half.

Coppin put on the afterburners in the second half when they outscored Howard 25-9 from the start. Haper's steal and dunk with 11:10 remaining extended the Eagles' advantage to 61-32.

The importance of putting teams away was evident in the Eagles after they tend to let opponents back in the game in their previous encounters. Ellis said about this, "Coach told us about that. We always relax at halftime and we just try not to relax and just came out and put the pressure on them. They just folded."

Fang knows that these guys can play at this level consistently saying, "As I tell them, they have to understand what they are. They are a very good basketball team.They just got to go out and put it to work."