The Coppin State men’s basketball team won three of its final four regular-season games, and there’s good reason for that.
Eagles third-year standout Nendah Tarke played through a small fracture in his shooting hand for much of the season, but he declared himself healthy following Coppin’s 77-65 win at Morgan State on March 2. He posted 18 points, five rebounds and two assists in the Eagles’ final game before the MEAC tournament.
Tarke averaged 14 points per game on 53.7 percent shooting from the field and 41.7 percent shooting from 3-point range during the Eagles’ last seven games of the regular season. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound guard originally suffered the injury during the preseason, then had to play with his left hand wrapped until recently.
“Shoot, it derailed me up until a couple weeks ago,” Tarke said. “It was tough playing with it, but I’m healthy now and just being able to make layups.”
Tarke averaged 12.2 points per game on 40.5 percent shooting from the field and 30.5 percent from 3-point range during Coppin’s first 24 games, then the Eagles had an 11-day break between games. After that, he got healthier and became more efficient scoring the basketball.
That’s good news for Coppin, which enters the MEAC tournament in Norfolk as the No. 6 seed after going 4-10 in league play. The Eagles play two-time defending conference champ Norfolk State in the quarterfinals on March 9 and will need to win three games in three days to earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
However, Coppin did win at Norfolk State, 69-62, on Feb. 20. Tarke scored 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting in that contest, part of his late surge with better health.
“It was his shooting hand, so he really couldn’t feel the ball, really couldn’t squeeze the ball,” Eagles head coach Juan Dixon said. “The basketball gods blessed us — one of our best players got healthy at the right time. We’re playing sound basketball on both ends of the floor. … Most importantly, these guys understand the importance of guarding for 40 minutes and executing our principles and we did that at a high level [against Morgan].”
Coppin held Morgan to 24.1 percent shooting in the first half, leading to a 37-24 halftime lead, and then the Eagles put together a 40-point second half to put away the Bears. Four players finished with 13 or more points, and not one of those players was star point guard Sam Sessoms, who scored just seven points and led the offense as a distributor (eight assists).
It certainly helps to throw passes to a healthy Tarke, but redshirt seniors Kam’Ron Blue, Mike Hood and Justin Steers had productive nights as well. The latter three combined to score 43 points on 16-of-26 shooting. Coppin had some success breaking Morgan’s press, leading to open threes and layups.
The Eagles will need another balanced effort to beat Norfolk State (20-10, 9-5).
“I feel like this is just the right time to have multiple players playing good at once. That’s what you need in the tournament,” Hood said. “You can’t have one or two players playing good, you’re going to lose early or in the championship. You need your whole team. We’re figuring it out quick right now, and I think we’re ready for this.”
Tarke said the team has grown closer of late as well.
“I feel like we’ve shifted in the way we think and the way we play and the way we interact with each other,” Tarke said. “I feel like it’s all changed, and that reflects how we play on the court. March is stressful and everyone wants to win, and it’s the best time to peak.”
Dixon blamed himself for his team’s 9-22 overall record, saying he was slow to make adjustments defensively. Coppin finished the regular season seventh in the eight-team MEAC in points allowed per game (83.5) and sixth in opponent field goal percentage (.462). The Eagles are last in the conference in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom, a college basketball analytics site.
On the flip side, Coppin is fourth in the MEAC in adjusted offensive efficiency.
“When our guys got here in August, I said … offense is not going to be the problem,” Dixon said. “Now, we weren’t playing a good brand of basketball on the offensive end at some points throughout the year, but I knew how explosive we were. … I just said we had to get our defense going. Our 9-22 record doesn’t indicate how good we are.”
BALTIMORE HOOPS NOTEBOOK
BEARS LOOKING TO BOUNCE BACK: Morgan’s 77-65 loss to Coppin marked a disappointing senior night for the Bears, who honored Isaiah Burke, Lewis Djonkam, Ty Horner, Malik Miller and Collin Nnamene prior to tipoff. Morgan (15-15, 7-7) earned the No. 5 seed in the MEAC tournament and will play Maryland Eastern Shore in the quarterfinals on March 9.
The Bears had won three in a row entering the Coppin game and were beginning to figure it out after losing Miller to a torn ACL. But Morgan head coach Kevin Broadus said the Eagles “wanted it more than we did.”
“We’ve had some success with [a] three-game winning streak and our guys start feeling themselves. We probably needed that,” Broadus said. “… Now they’ll listen. They’re listening. We’re going to practice harder when we get back to work on Sunday — a couple days off and we’ll get back Sunday and get their focus back to where it was and hopefully we can beat UMES in the first round.”
GOLDEN DECISION LOOMING: Though Loyola improved throughout the course of Patriot League play and beat Holy Cross in the first round of the conference tournament, the Greyhounds fell to top-seeded Colgate, 92-73, in the quarterfinals to finish the season 13-20 overall.
Guards Jaylin Andrews and Kenneth Jones have exhausted their eligibility, but senior big man Golden Dike is eligible for a fifth year due to the NCAA’s rules regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Dike averaged 7.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game in 2022-23, but the 6-foot-10, 248-pound Spanish forward saved two of his best performances of the year for the Patriot League tournament (11 points and 16 rebounds against the Crusaders and 17 points and 6 rebounds against the Raiders).
Loyola head coach Tavaras Hardy said he and Dike hadn’t “fully discussed” a possible fifth year prior to the end of the 2022-23 season. Dike played with a lot of fire against Holy Cross, which could have been his final game at Reitz Arena.
“I love this game. I’ve been playing this game since I was 8, and I also want to play pro after my career here,” Dike said following the victory against the Crusaders. “I just put my whole body and my soul [into] the game, so that’s why I was so emotional.”
OTHER NOTES: Towson entered the CAA tournament as the No. 3 seed with designs on breaking a 30-plus-year NCAA Tournament drought, but the Tigers fell to the College of Charleston, 77-72, in the semifinals on March 6. Cam Holden and Nicolas Timberlake combined for 38 points in the loss. … UMBC’s America East quarterfinal matchup against Binghamton was scheduled to tip off at 1 p.m. on March 4, but a power outage forced the game to be pushed back to 7 p.m. The Retrievers’ season ended with a 67-65 loss. Of UMBC’s six graduate students and seniors, only forward Yaw Obeng-Mensah (8.5 points and 6.4 rebounds per game) is eligible for another season. … Johns Hopkins (25-4) defeated Mitchell and Hamilton on consecutive days in Baltimore to move on to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament. Next, the Blue Jays will face Wisconsin-Whitewater in Ashland, Va., at 4 p.m. on March 10.
Photo Credits: Janelle Murphy/Coppin State Athletics and Colin Murphy/PressBox