Michael Sauls
Jan 28, 2024
NORFOLK — Norfolk State gutted out a tough victory over Coppin State on Saturday. The 68-58 win gave the Spartans their third straight win and improved their records to 13-8 overall and 3-1 in MEAC play.
“That was an ugly win, but I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day,” Jones said. “Coppin came out, they were scrapping, they came up with a point to prove. They’re a team that is trying to rise and tried to come in and showed a merit against us and they did as such. They made it a tough game throughout.”
Coppin State, which came into the game ranked third-worst in the NET rankings (No. 360), played some of its best basketball. The Eagles led for a few minutes in the game and never trailed by more than 10. Jones said he expects teams to bring their best when they take on Norfolk State and that Coppin did just that “without question.”
“Credit to them for playing the way they played,” Jones said. “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.”
Forward Chris Fields led the way for Norfolk State. The freshman finished with a team-high 19 points, the most he’s scored against a Division I team in his young career. Fields set his career-high of 31 points earlier this month against Virginia University Lynchburg.
“I feel like it was a great opportunity for me to go and show that I can compete against people at our level too,” Fields said. “I feel like tonight was a great example.”
Fields is averaging 11 minutes a game, but has seen his minutes increase in the past few games as his production in his limited role increases. In the past four games alone, he’s averaging 19 minutes of play.
“I see him improve every day in practice,” graduate forward Tyrel Bladen said. “I feel like he’s getting a good feel for the game, a good feel for the system (and) he’s starting to get our defensive rotations a lot better. So that kind of translates right to offense because he’s real comfortable on offense, but now he’s starting to figure out the defensive part. Having him on the floor has been really beneficial for us.”
Bladen himself finished second in scoring for the Spartans with 11 points. On a night where Norfolk State leading scorer Jamarii Thomas finished with just seven points, Bladen said the success of other Spartans is a testament to the depth of Jones’ squad.
“Jamarii is a great player; sometimes like tonight maybe the shot just wasn’t falling for him,” Bladen said. “Like coach said, I’m sure more shots will fall for him on Monday, but it just really shows that everybody on our team just kind of stays ready. They’re staying in the gym, getting reps and just kind of waiting for their opportunity to help us win.”
Norfolk State had no luck from beyond the arc, finishing 0 for 12 from 3-point range. Coppin State, on the other hand, was lights out and hit 10 of 23 for a 43.5% clip.
The Spartans were able to make up for some of those points by taking several trips to the free-throw line. Norfolk State ended the game 24 of 34 from the charity stripe.
Norfolk State will return to Echols Hall on Monday and face Morgan State at 7:30 p.m.