Spartans Edge Coppin St., 78-72
12/30/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec 30, 2003
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Paul Davis, Kelvin Torbert and Chris Hill had big games for Michigan State against Coppin State.
But they knew they would have to be better against Syracuse this weekend.
Davis, Torbert and Hill combined for 61 points, but Michigan State (5-5) had to rally in both halves for a 78-72 win on Tuesday in a tuneup for a much harder game on Saturday.
"Every game we have to improve," Davis said. "We have to rebound the ball a lot better and get it inside-and-out on offense. We've got some great shooters on the perimeter."
Hill, by far the best of that group, said the Spartans need to do everything they did in the second half against Coppin State (3-9) and more if they hope to beat No. 17 Syracuse, the defending national champions.
"We have to look at what we did well to get shots and do that better," Hill said. "We did a lot of good things. But Syracuse has a lot of guys who can make it tough for us."
Davis was 8-for-9 from the field and had a game-high 22 points. Torbert had 21 points off the bench. And Hill added 18 points, five assists and three steals for the Spartans.
"We knew that they could shoot the ball," Torbert said. "They did that and made it tough for a while. But guys like Alan Anderson and Chris got open shots for me and Paul."
Kelvin Green had 20 points for the Eagles, who have played just one home game this season.
"We gave up moral victories, I don't (know) what year it was," Coppin State coach Fang Mitchell said. "An opportunity for success was out there. And we were not successful."
At one point the Eagles led by eight points in the first half, which ended tied at 30. They regained a three-point margin early in the second half. It was 57-57 with less than 10:00 left when Michigan State finally took control with a 14-2 spurt.
Shannon Brown added 12 points and a team-high five rebounds for the Spartans, who shot 70 percent from the field in the second half and 61 percent for the game.
Coppin State stayed close with 11-for-20 3-point shooting and a stunning 29-21 rebounding edge against at team known for rebounding.
Jimmy Boykin had four of those 3-pointers for the Eagles and finished with 14 points.
"I don't like the fact that it ended up a six-point game," Izzo said. "It wasn't a 20-point game. But it was probably 10."
