Coppin State dispatches N.C. A&T

by Keith Henry

After their customary tough start, the Coppin State Eagles went to work offensively and used their defense in the second half to smackdown N.C. A&T 88-70 at the PEC.

The Eagles won their fifth straight MEAC contest, their fourth consecutive victory overall and fifth in the last six games. Michael Harper and Tony Gallo led Coppin State (10-9, 5-2 MEAC) with 18 points each while Antonio Williams led everyone with his career high 18 rebounds.

Coppin State head coach Ron "Fang" Mitchell said about the game, "We're starting to get it together. The thing we're concentrating on really is our defense that we have to do a better job of. When it comes to defense, we have to stop getting those mental lapses. I'm really proud of our offense and how we can score. But it's about how many stops we make."

Coppin State shot 50% from the field in the game. That included a 53.3% second half when they nailed 16 of 30 shots.

North Carolina A&T (9-12, 4-3 MEAC) made their mark once the second half began. Already down 43-29 at the half, the Aggies struck with a lay-up from Thomas Coleman, who led everyone with 21 points on the evening. . Then after Williams turned the ball over, Marc Hill buried a three-pointer from the corner. After a Coppin timeout, R.J. Buck then convereted two free throws to draw them to within 43-36 with 17:46 left.

But the Eagles responded by scoring the next 13 points. Gallo got the run started with a three-pointer from the top of the key. Then off a williams rebound, he fed an advancing Vince Goldsberry for a lay-up. Then Goldsberry returned the favor in feeding Williams for a lay-up. Then Gallo and Goldsberry each converted two free throws. Finally, Goldsberry's rebound led to his lay-up with 13:44 remaining to extend the Coppin advantage to 56-36.

Fang said about the second half start and response, "That's the thing that we we're worried about because they're still young. Let's remember that they're young and that they haven't been playing together long. So this is like getting to understand each other. With only two seniors, it's going to be a situation that we're going to have to pick them up. Like I told them in the second half, they're going to come out after you. That's exactly what they did."

N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves said, "We tried to get back in the game. But we can't keep spotting teams (that many points). We've done it now the past three games. We've been very, very, very sluggish and lethargic. We can't make lay-ups. It wasn't really surprising. I mean i was down 25 at home and it was like 'Guys, are we going to play?' It's like we're just a little tired right now. But all teams go through these little lulls. We'll bounce back out of it and get it going. But we're just a little sluggish now."

The Aggies pushed back and got within 63-55 on a Buck lay-up with 6:58 remaining. But Goldsberry converted a lay-up and then off a three-point miss from Hill, Gallo fed an advancing Harper who converted a one-handed reverse dunk while he was fouled by Nic Simpson. Harper made the free throw to push Coppin's lead up to 68-55 with 6:09 left.

Williams said about the second half play, "Coach Fang told us to just keep it up, keep it going and keep pushing it."

The Aggies never got closer than 10 points after that.

Harper said about the second half, "We exploded because we started playing as a team more in the second half. people was drawing more attention to each other and kicking it out for other players to shoot. That's what really helped us out. We were playing as a team today."