North Carolina Central University begins a four-game road trip that will take the Eagles away from the Bull City till the end of the month of January. NCCU is coming off a four-game homestand where LeVelle Moton’s squad finished 2-2 winning the last contest against Maryland Eastern Shore 67-61 on Monday night. The Eagles are 1-6 away from home this year.

THE SERIES

NCCU and Coppin State have only met four previous times with the last meeting nearly three years ago on Jan. 30, 2008. In fact, before the Dec. 4 overtime thriller over S.C. State, that 67-65 win over the host Eagles proved to be the last road win for NCCU, a streak that lasted 43 games. It was two weeks earlier on the 16th of January in 2008 where Coppin State bested NCCU 66-62 in McDougald-McLendon Gym. The series is tied at 2-2.

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY “EAGLES”

The Coppin State University Eagles enter this weekend’s tilt flying high as CSU convincingly beat conference foe Howard on Monday night 84-53 inside the newly built Physical Education Complex on the Eagles’ campus. Both teams enter this weekend with an identical 6-8 record and the host Eagles have wins against Navy, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, West Virginia Tech, and Howard. The Eagles are headed by legendary coach Ron “Fang” Mitchell who has led CSU to 8 postseason appearances that includes a huge upset in the NCAA Tournament back in 1997, as the 15th-seeded Eagles upset second seeded South Carolina 78-65, widely considered one of the biggest upsets in tournament history. Mitchell has been at the helm for 25 years and has compiled an astonishing record of 385-351. Some of his accomplishments are earning at least a share of nine out of 10 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular-season titles during the 1990s, equaling the most won by any NCAA Division I program the past decade. He’s the all-time winningest coach in Coppin State history and he’s been named MEAC Coach of the Year six times. One of the greatest examples of his coaching skill came in the 2007-08 season when Coppin State won 12 of 13 straight contests which included a run through the MEAC tournament and CSU’s fourth NCAA Tournament bid. The lone loss during that stretch was against NCCU at home. The visiting Eagles beat Coppin State 67-65 on Jan. 30, 2008. The current edition of Coppin State basketball is third in the conference in scoring averaging 68.4 points a game, and sit atop the league in three-point percentage hitting a stellar 36.7 percent from the perimeter. The host Eagles average 8.0 three-pointers per game and have already hit 112 in 14 games this season. Coppin State has three student-athletes that are ranked among the Top 30 in the MEAC as junior shooting guard Michael Harper leads the way scoring 15.9 points per game which places him fourth in the league. Junior point guard Tony Gallo sits in 16th in the conference averaging 12.6 points a game. Junior forward Akeem Ellis rounds out the Eagles in the top 30 as he is 22nd in the confernce dropping in an average of 11.1 points per contest. Starting power forward Antonio Williams is 13th in the MEAC in rebounding pulling down 5.6 boards per game. Senior point guard Vince Goldsberry is seventh in the conference in assists dishing out a team-high 3.2 helpers a game.

UP NEXT

After Saturday’s contest in Baltimore, Md. against Coppin State, head coach LeVelle Moton and his squad will have some time off before traveling back up north to take on Norfolk State University on Saturday, Jan. 22 with tipoff approximately set for 6:00 p.m. from Echols Hall. The Spartans and Eagles will be meeting for the 34th time in program history with NSU holding a distinct 26-7 advantage over NCCU.