Following up my early afternoon at Maryland, I drove 45 minutes
north to Baltimore for a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference matchup between the
Coppin St. Eagles and South Carolina St. Bulldogs. The Coppin St. Physical Education Complex
served as Arena #157. Normally I do some
checking into the game times at smaller schools to see if they’re having men’s
and women’s doubleheaders that would affect the tip times for the men’s game,
but I didn’t do that in this instance.
That was a mistake as I made myself hustle out of the Maryland game as
it ended to ensure I could make the 4 pm tip at Coppin St. when I didn’t need
to as the Coppin St. and South Carolina St. women were also playing a game at 2
pm meaning there was no way the men’s game was going to start at 4. Even further as I walked into the arena right
at 4 pm, overtime in the women’s game was just tipping off so I got to see the
end of a competitive women’s game before the men’s game eventually tipped
around 4:45 pm.
When I go to games
around Christmas and New Year’s, I expect the atmosphere and attendance to be a
little subdued with students away on break, which was certainly the case here to
where I didn’t get a true HBCU experience, but I will say the South Carolina
St. fans that were in attendance brought some life to the game. This was one of the most competitive games
during my trip, including a bunch of back-and-forth action late in the second half
with the lead changing hands multiple times through a combination of clutch
shots and less than stellar decisions both ways. At the end of the day though, the South
Carolina St. Bulldogs made a couple big buckets and big defensive stops late to
pull off a 4-point road win in Baltimore.
The biggest bonus, however, was that this game ended up finishing early
enough even with the delayed start that I was able to turn my doubleheader day
into a tripleheader by squeezing in an NBA nightcap between the Wizards and
Nuggets back down in the District.
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| Main entrance to the Physical Education Complex at Coppin St. University |
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| Impressively nice seating bowl with capacity for just over 4,000, though not nearly that many in attendance on this day |
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| Opening tip between the Coppin St. Eagles and South Carolina St. Bulldogs |
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| Coppin St. with the emphatic flush |
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