Coppin State
- Dec 2, 2021
- 5 min read
Coppin State Lady Eagles (2-3) vs. Saint Francis Red Flash (0-4)
Sunday, November 28, 2021 @ 1:00 PM
Baltimore, Maryland
Physical Education Complex
THE SCHOOL
Coppin State University is a public historically Black university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1900, CSU enrolls 2,348 students and has an endowment of $11.9 million. The school began as a teacher's college but now sends a lot of students into the health field. Surprisingly for a historically co-ed public school, Coppin's student body is over three-quarters female.
The Coppin State Eagles compete in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in NCAA Division I. The Lady Eagles have struggled lately; they've only won five games in the past two years and, prior to this season, had not won a nonconference match since 2017. However, with two wins already under their belt, Coppin State seems to have made progress with their 2021-22 squad.
Saint Francis University is a private Catholic university in Loretto, Pennsylvania. The SFU Red Flash compete in the Northeast Conference (NEC). Confusingly, Saint Francis University and St. Francis College (from Brooklyn, New York) are both full members of the NEC. This seems like poor planning.
THE TOWN
The last time I went to the Baltimore area (for the Goucher game), I mentioned that I ran into quite a bit of traffic. Here's a little secret about avoiding that: travel on a Sunday afternoon. My drive to Baltimore (mostly straight north on I-95) only took about forty-five minutes, which is pretty good time.
When I travel to games (particularly when Allison goes with me, as she did today), I like to eat at interesting local restaurants. I may not find anywhere more interesting than Baltimore's Spring Cafe. This tiny building in the Hampden neighborhood serves Afghan food, which - I don't know about you - is a new thing for me. Allison and I both ordered tokhum kachalo, which is a combination of eggs, potatoes, and onions. It was delicious! It turns out that eggs, potatoes, and onions are a winning combination no matter what part of the world you're in.
Coppin State's campus is in the Mondawmin neighborhood of Baltimore. In fact, if you look out the window of the arena, you can see the Mondawmin Mall.
Like much of Baltimore, this area is filled with rowhouses. Rowhouses are like townhouses that perfectly line Baltimore's streets for miles at a time. Some are run down and seem abandoned, but many are well kept up and look pretty. Most are very narrow but very long and I'd love to see the inside of one some day.
Coppin State's campus is quite nice. There's nothing fancy about it, but they keep it up well. When walking through campus, Allison and I came across this nice green space that had been decorated by Coppin's sororities and fraternities. I couldn't tell what the theme was; there were Halloween decorations, grills and coolers, and painted trees, all between some dorms and a small cafe.
The Physical Education Complex is a really nice arena. Situated along the Gwynns Falls Parkway on the northern edge of campus, this place has a cool exterior, despite its lackluster name. The inside's great too - chairback seats are arranged in a bowl structure inside of a large concourse that has giant windows providing plenty of natural light. It's also quite large; capacity is over 4,000, which is not too bad for a school with about half that many students. The Physical Education Complex has been the home of Eagle basketball since 2009, but the structure, amenities, and cleanliness make it feel brand new.
THE GAME
I did something that I'd never done in the history of this website: I was late to a game.
Lunch took longer than I thought and I had some trouble parking. Plus, I should always add a little time for city driving. Regardless, five minutes of game time elapsed before I arrived at the gym. Does Coppin State do anything interesting pregame? How can I know, I was late. This is a mistake to avoid in the future.
As you can see in the photo above, it was a sparse crowd at the Physical Education Complex. An early Sunday afternoon game during Thanksgiving break likely isn't anyone's best-selling ticket. Despite the light attendance, there were two people there that will stick with me:
Off-court star #1: the PA announcer. This guy was great. He had a deep bass voice and made sure to e-nun-ci-ate ev-'ry syll-a-ble. He did what he could to bring his own brand of enthusiasm to the game.
Off-court star #2: the lady a couple rows in front of me. She had a gold Coppin sweatshirt and bright white hair. I couldn't tell if she had a daughter/granddaughter on the team, but she seemed to know every player personally and jumped up and yelled any time an Eagle did something good. She brought a lot of joy to the game; there were periods where I watched her more than the on-court action.
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When I got to the game with roughly five minutes gone in the first quarter, Coppin State led Saint Francis 10-4. Saint Francis would not score again until well into the second. Per the play-by-play, Coppin went on a 20-0 run in the first and second quarters and eventually led 22-4. It was over pretty early for the Red Flash.
Looking at their past results, Coppin State's #20, Jaia Alexander, is usually their team leader. Alexander had an off-day, however, and freshman #10, Jewel Watkins, came off the bench and was the on-court star. Watkins led the way with 16 points, 7 rebounds, and made highlight play after highlight play for the Eagles. She and #1, Mossi Staples (14 points, great defense) made sure Saint Francis never got back into the game.
Final: Coppin State 68, Saint Francis 38
This was a mostly noncompetitive, short game (it clocked in at just over an hour and a half), so there's not much to write about. Reader, your attention is better served to the halftime entertainment.
Coppin State started halftime with a halfcourt shootout between students. This is a common halftime strategy for schools regardless of division. However, as mentioned previously, it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and there were not many students present. Apparently the only people they could get to do it were two cheerleaders and the girl taking tickets.
What were they competing for? According to the PA announcer, "about $600" provided by a local business whose name I didn't catch. I have so many questions about this. Why didn't he specify the amount of money? Did he know it? Was the prize in cash? Did they have "about $600" there? Disappointingly, I never got my answers because no one's shot got anywhere close to the rim.
They had one more game, though. They also did the one where a student tries to hit a layup, free throw, three-pointer, and halfcourt shot in twenty-five seconds for a certain amount of money in tuition. This is a near impossible challenge, but it's actually impossible if you somehow don't shoot any of the right shots. They got another cheerleader to do it and... I couldn't figure out her strategy. For the entirety of her twenty-five seconds, she only attempted long two-point shots which - if you think about it - is just about the only spot on the court you're not supposed to shoot from in this game. Needless to say, she didn't win any money, not even about $600.
Thanks for reading.
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