Washington, DC—Howard University opened with an impressive showing in the first 9 minutes, jumping out to an 18-point lead, but the Bison could not contain the hot-shooting Eagles as Coppin State rebounded to roll to an 81-70 win over Howard in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference men's game at Burr Gymnasium. 

Howard (4-14, 1-2 in the MEAC) bolted out to a 23-5 lead at the 11:48 mark on the scoring of freshman guard Charles "CJ" Williams, who was on fire with 18 points in the first 20 minutes on 6 of 7 shooting from the field, 4 of 5 from beyond the arc. The Eagles (5-15, 4-1 in the MEAC) appeared to be out of shorts as they missed easy shots and turned the ball over consistently, allowing the Bison to get out and run. 

Then the tide changed. Over the last 10 minutes, Coppin State began to settle down and chip away at the lead, using a 27-10 blitz to cut the deficit to 33-32 at the half. 

The Eagles briefly took the lead for the first time at 34-33 to start the half on a basket by Chas Brown. The Bison regrouped, however on the scoring of Solomon "Solo" Mangham, who tallied 9 of his 13 after intermission. The result was a 48-40 Howard lead six minutes into the second stanza. 

But the scrappy Eagles had set the tone and showed that they were not going away. Dejuan Clayton went to work for Coppin State, scoring on a variety of ways from long range three pointers to slick moves to the basket. His three pointer with the shot clock running down gave the visitors the lead for good at 58-55 with 6:44 remaining. 

Howard would rally to stay close on the scoring Damon Collins' 12 second half points, but the Eagles used a pivotal 8-0 run in 45 seconds that put the game away for all intents and purposes. 

After shooting 52 percent in the first half, the Bison missed 19 of 30 in the second half. Meanwhile, Coppin State blistered the baskets with 70 percent marksmanship in the second half, including 5 of 8 from three-point range. 

Williams led all Bison scorers with 26 points while Collins contributed 15 and Mangham 13. It must be noted that James "JT" Miller, who came into the game as the team's leading scorer, received an injury in the first half and never was able to get anything going the rest of the game. He finished with 5 points. 

Mangham just missed a double double as he collected 9 rebounds. Marcel Boyd grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds to help the Bison hold a 38-25 advantage on the glass. Kofi Andoh came off the bench to contribute 8 points and 5 rebounds. 

Coppin State was led Clayton with 28, Keith Shivers with 15, Tre Thomas with 13 and Brown with 10. 

NEXT UP: Howard travels to Tobacco Road to take on rival North Carolina A&T on Saturday at 4 pm in Corbett Sports Arena.