The Norfolk State Spartans (13-8, 3-1) fight past an ‘ugly’ night to beat The Coppin State Eagles (2-16) 68-58. The Spartans struggled to keep possession of the ball. They notched 20 turnovers in the ball game, their second-highest turnover total in the 2023-2024 campaign.

“That was ugly win, but I’ll take a ugly win over pretty loss any day,” Coach Jones said. “You know Coppin came out scrapping, you know they came out with a point to prove. Their a team that’s trying to you know, rise and they tried to come in showed a merit against us, and they did as such, you know they made it a tough game throughout, and you know they had some guys who made some shots and like I said credit to them for playing the way they played, but we were able to pull it out at the end. Once we kind of clamped down and started playing the way we should play.”

A slow start for both teams offensively kicked off a struggling game for both squads. The Spartans went 0-4 from the field, and 0-4 from the Free throw line before making their first basket, and The Eagles went 0-1 from the field and 0-2 from the line before scoring their first basket. In addition to the Spartans slow start, Standout Guard Jamarii Thomas also started very slow and never really found his rhythm throughout the whole game notching only 7 points and 5 turnovers tying his season low for the 2023-2024 campaign.

Freshman Standout Chris Fields Jr. led the Spartans in scoring with 19 points and 5 rebounds, Tyrel Bladen was right behind him putting in the dirty work and making timely buckets with 11 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.

“Jamarii is a great player,” Tyrel Bladen said. “Like coach said, I’m sure more shots will fall for him on Monday, but it just really shows that you know, everybody on our team just kind of stays ready, they stay in the gym getting reps and just kind of waiting for their opportunity to help us win.”

A growing theme throughout the game was questionable calls from the officials. The Spartans and the Eagles received questionable travel calls throughout the game and also a free throw lane violation against the Spartans from a player who wasn’t in the free throw lane.

At the beginning of the second half, the Spartans struggled having 5 turnovers in the first 5 minutes and the Eagles took advantage by bringing the game within one point with 10 minutes and 58 seconds left in the Second Half.

Then the Spartans went on a 10-2 run for 3 minutes and 56 seconds. Chris Fields Jr led the way in this run with 6 points and 1 rebound, putting their lead at 57-50 with 4 minutes and 43 seconds left in the Second Half.

After The Spartan run the Eagles hit 2 threes to bring them within 3 points with 3 minutes and 38 seconds left but the Spartans came right back with a 9-2 run lasting 2 minutes and 56 seconds to put the Eagles away, and securing the win 68-58.

The Spartans will be back in action at home Monday, January 29, 2024, at 7:30 pm against The Morgan State Bears.