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Feb. 16, 2008
Daytona Beach, Fla. - Five players touched double-digits for Coppin State to lead the visiting Lady Eagles to a decisive 68-45 victory over Bethune-Cookman University in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference women's basketball game at the Ocean Center on Saturday afternoon in Daytona Beach, Fla. With Saturday's game promoting the awareness of breast cancer through the ongoing NCAA's "Think Pink" initiative for Bethune-Cookman, the Wildcats were all decked out in pink shooting jerseys, pink socks and shoe laces. In fact, the entire student section for the Wildcats wore pink, as well as the men's basketball coaching staff and athletic departmental staff. That's about as much fun as the `Cats would have, however, as things would soon become and black and blue for B-CU (4-19, 1-10 MEAC). Coppin State (14-11, 8-3 MEAC) used an arsenal of players to simply fly by the Wildcats with ease. CSU's point guard Shalamar Oakley was as good as advertised as she not only scored in double digits (10 points), but distributed the ball as well. She finished with a game-high nine assists for the Lady Eagles. The Lady Eagles jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead to start off the game before extending their lead out to double-digits with a sizeable 26-15 advantage just before the half. B-CU cut into that deficit before halftime with a lay-up from Natasha Ferguson at the buzzer to put the Wildcats down, 26-17 at the half. In the second half, it was all CSU as the Derek Brown coached team from Baltimore used a strong 13-2 run, started by a lay-up from Danielle Anders, to extend their working margin out to a 21-point advantage at 50-29 with 11:36 remaining in the game. That allowed some of the reserves for the Lady Eagles to get some work in. But the B-CU reserves looked strong as well with a good scoring output from Deneen Bell with four points, as well as freshman point guard Jasmine Daniels with seven points off the bench.
Ferguson led all Wildcat scorers with 10 points and nine rebounds--on shy of her possible fourth consecutive double-double. She also helped out with three dishes and two steals. In the end, however, there was just too much balance from the three-time defending regular season MEAC champs as they got double-digit scoring not only from Oakley (10 pts. 9 assts.), but also from Arielle Townes (12), Rashida Suber (11), Whitney Cunningham (10) and Sesalie Johnson (10). The Lady Eagles will now look to keep their winning streak alive when they travel up to the Florida capital city of Tallahassee on Monday night for a showdown with the Florida A&M Rattlers inside Gaither Gym at 5:30 pm. The `Cats will look to turn things around on Monday night when they venture back into the Ocean Center for a 5:30 pm tip-off against conference foe Morgan State. For ticket information, please call the B-CU Ticket Office at (386) 481-2292. |
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