#20 Georgetown knocks off Coppin women

by Keith Henry

The Coppin State Lady Eagles knew they had quite a test before them Wednesday night at the Physical Education Complex. The #20 Georgetown Hoyas came into this game on a roll, winning four in a row. Including a basketball tournament in Las Vegas last week which was highlighted with a victory over #10 Georgia.

Sugar Rodgers put on a show early in the first half. But despite a spirited rally in the second half, turnovers and bad shooting hurt the Lady Eagles big in a 70-54 loss to the Hoyas.

The Georgetown junior scored 21 of her game high 26 points, all on seven three-pointers during the first six minutes of the game. That included a fake out move where she pulled up and two CSU defenders flew by her, then she buried the three-point jumper from the top of the key. That move sent some of the Coppin men's basketball team out of their seats in amazement. “I was just feeling myself,” said Rodgers, who also led the team with six steals. “Once I get in a zone making threes, they just come naturally. That's all I did. I kept shooting the ball like my teammates told me to.”

Georgetown head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy added, “It was a good start. We're always going to start good with Sugar shooting like that.”

Coppin again struggled with their shooting. The Lady Eagles recorded a miserable 19% shooting effort in the first half, only converting four of their 21 attempts in that stanza. Coppin State (2-4) shot just 27.3% for the game by only converting 12 field goals all night long. But the Hoyas' defense had a lot to do with it as they made things miserable inside the paint for CSU center Jeanine Manley, denying her the ball. Even when Manley recieved the ball inside, Georgetown center Sydney Wilson was tough on her most of the half. “It was one of our goals to deny her. I mean she's good, she's big and she's a big presence inside.We tried, that's all I can say.”
Georgetown (6-2) was blistering the net, recording a 53.3% effort shooting (16-of-30). Some of those baskets resulting from the turnovers.

Those early three-pointers from Rodgers helped give the Hoyas a 25-8 advantage with 12:53 remaining in the first half. It would ballon to 40-16 on a Vanessa Moore lay-up with 3:42 left. Coppin State would cut the deficit to 44-26 at halftime when they started putting on their press.

The Lady Eagles kept on cutting the deficit down to start the second half by harassing Georgetown point guard Rubylee Wright. It eventually led to Ashle Craig converting a tough lay-up in the paint with 13:59 remaining to further cut the Georgetown advantage to 50-39.

But that's as close as the Lady Eagles would get this night. Georgetown fired back with a run of their own, outscoring CSU 16-5 and limiting the Lady Eagles to one basket in a stretch of 8:28. Georgetown built back a 66-44 advantage with 5:43 remaining. A Jeanine Manley lay-up broke the silent string for the Lady Eagles with 4:31 left.Manley led Coppin State with 16 points on the night.

“We were just turning the ball over. We're playing too fast. At that point, you just relax. Go sit down and let's run our offense and then solid defense," said Williams-Flournoy about the second half run.

Coppin had quite a long session in the locker room after the game. When Coppin head coach Derek Brown emerged from the locker room, he said that he had nothing to share about this game.