NORFOLK, Va. (March 12, 2019) – Coppin State's Dejuan Clayton scored a game-high 23 points to give the 7th-seeded Eagles an 81-71 win over No. 10 seed Morgan State Tuesday night in opening round action of the 2019 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Basketball Tournament at the Norfolk Scope Arena.
A pair of free throws from Morgan State's Sherwyn Devonish-Prince Jr. gave the Bears their largest advantage, 40-26, but Coppin State closed the half on a 7-1 spurt and cut the margin to single digits, 41-33.
"Morgan [State] punched us in the mouth early," Coppin State head coach Juan Dixon said. "But we were able to cut the double-digit lead at halftime. We played solid defense in the second half and we were able to put up good numbers offensively."
Coppin State (8-24) opened the half on an 11-4 run, capped off by a one-handed put back jam from Justin Steers, and sliced the deficit down to one, 45-44.
With more than five minutes remaining, Coppin State's Chad Andrews-Fulton connected on two free throws and put the Eagles ahead, 64-63. From that point on, Coppin State finished the game on a 17-8 run.
Coppin earned a matchup with No. 2-seeded North Carolina A&T on Wednesday at 8 p.m. The Eagles improved to 8-24 on the season, while Morgan State ended its campaign at 9-21.
Chad Andrews-Fulton and Kent Auslander finished with 12 points each for Coppin State, which also got 11 points apiece from Lamar Morgan and Justin Steers points. The Eagles held a Morgan added a game-high eight rebounds for the Eagles who out-rebounded the Bears by a commanding 47-34 margin.
"That's one of the tougher teams in the MEAC," Dixon said. "It's hard to beat a team three times in a season."
The Bears were paced by freshman Sherwyn Devonish-Prince who finished with 15 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals in 34 minutes of action.Stanley Davis had 12 points and six boards, while Isaiah Burke added 11 points and David Syfax contributed 10 points for Coach Todd Bozeman' squad.
Coppin shot 53-percent (24-for-45) from the field, including 60-percent (15-for-25) after halftime.
"I want to congratulate Coppin [State]," Morgan State head coach Todd Bozeman said. "[I] give them credit [because] they found a way to win. They had 21 turnovers and we took 74 shots. We had our chances."
Morgan State (9-21) scored 27 points on 21 turnovers and there were two ties and seven lead changes in the game.
Coppin State scored 32 points off the bench and finished the game with seven blocks.
Bear Facts
Senior point guard Martez Cameron completes his Morgan State career ranked among the school's leaders: ranked No. 10 in steals (129), T-No. 4 in games played (121) and No. 1 in assists (446).
