BALTIMORE – Last year, Navy’s Jordan Sugars delivered the dagger. This time, Coppin State’s Akeem Ellis returned it.
Winning a battle for a long rebound, and hitting a short one-hander from the baseline with 6.7 seconds left, the junior forward delivered Coppin a 65-64 victory, sweet revenge for last year’s painful 75-72 loss in Annapolis when Sugars hit a 3-pointer with 1 second left.
“Basketball karma kinda works that way,” said Navy coach Billy Lange. “I thought our guys really competed for that rebound. But [Ellis] just went up and over, got that ball and made a tough shot.”
| Up next |
| Navy at Mercer |
| When » Friday, 7 p.m. |
| Where » University Center, Macon, Ga. |
| Mercer (2-7) of the Atlantic Sun has lost four straight and is led by 6-2 sophomore Jeff Smith (14 ppg, 3.4 rpg) and 6-6 senior Brandon Moore (11.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg). |
After Ellis hit his shot, Navy senior guard A.J. Avworo raced the ball upcourt and got a good look at the basket with an up-and-under move, but his 10-footer hit the front of the rim with 2 seconds left as Navy fell to 4-7.
“It was a great college basketball game in terms of the back and forth in the last minute there,” said Lange.
No team in Division I has played more games so far than Navy. But the Mids showed no ill-effects of their heavy workload as they staged an inspired second-half rally and took the lead in the final minute as Avworo (5 assists) found freshman J.J. Avila (10 points) for a layup off an inbound pass with 28 seconds to go.
But Coppin (3-3) patiently worked the clock, getting a corner jumper from junior Michael Harper (12 points). When the 20-footer missed long, the 6-foot-6 Ellis (20 points, 12 rebounds) from Brooklyn, N.Y. was there for the game winner.
“I had to get it. I saw it come off the rim,” said Ellis. “It went right to me. I knew we were down and I wanted to go straight up.”
It was a tough loss for Navy after going on an 11-point run midway through the second half to turn an eight-point deficit into a lead. Senior guard Greg Brown (14 points, 7 rebounds) had five of the points in the rally, which also was also fueled by the scrappy play of freshman guard Isaiah Roberts (11 points).
“Isaiah Roberts played with great passion, sparked our team,” said Lange. “We started moving the ball a little bit. We got some cuts to the rim. We forced some turnovers and got some stops on the defensive end.”
Navy later extended its lead as Sugars (12 points, 6 rebounds) hustled for a rebound off a missed free throw and made a layup to make it 57-53. But Coppin came back in final four minutes as Ellis and junior guard Tony Gallo (19 points) drilled 3-pointers.
It was a seesaw battle. After Navy darted to a 18-5 lead, getting a pair of 3-pointers from Brown, Coppin heated up, hitting 13 of its final 15 shots of the first half to take a 36-32 lead. During the Eagles’ run, the Mids were hurt by the absence of Brown, who picked up his second foul and sat out the final 13:06 of the half.
“If you take the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes, that’s 20 minutes of us playing as well as probably we can play,” said Lange. “But there’s 20 other minutes in the game.”
