Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – Juniors RaShid Gaston and D'Shon Taylor led the way with double-doubles, and the Norfolk State men's basketball team pulled away from Coppin State in the second half in an 88-69 MEAC victory on Monday night at Joseph Echols Hall.
 
Gaston posted his fifth straight double-double with 19 points on 9-of-13 shooting to go with 13 rebounds and three assists. Taylor led all scorers with a career-high 24 points on 9-of-15 field goals, including a 5-of-7 effort from the 3-point line. He also posted 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
 
The victory moved NSU's record to 2-0 in conference play and 6-4 overall heading into the rest of the non-conference schedule. CSU fell to 1-7 overall, 0-2 in the MEAC.
 
In a game that featured a lot of quick back and forth action, including a combined 27 fastbreak points, the Spartans had their highest scoring output over Coppin State in a regulation contest in 31 games. CSU came into the game dead last in the nation in scoring defense.
 
Junior Jeff Short added 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting with three rebounds and three assists for NSU. It marked the second straight game two Spartan players scored at least 20 points.
 
NSU was up by as much as 14 in the first half before the Eagles cut the deficit to five at the break. That Spartan lead shrank to just two in the early part of the second half.
 
The Spartans answered with a 14-3 run over the next six minutes, capped by a layup by Gaston at the 10:12 mark. Taylor came off a screen and drained a 3-pointer for a 65-51 edge, before the Eagles cut the deficit to 12 points, 67-55, on a 3-point play by Jahvari Josiah with 7:44 left.
 
That was all she wrote for the Eagles, though, as the Spartans eventually pushed the lead to 20 at 80-60 when Taylor got the kind bounce off the back of the rim. NSU led by as many as 21 late in the contest.
 
The Spartans now own a 24-11 edge in the all-time series with Coppin State. The 19-point victory was the largest for NSU over the Eagles since the programs' first meeting in 1982-83, a 21-point win for the Spartans.
 
NSU shot 33-of-63 (52.4 percent) from the field, including an 11-of-22 effort from the line. The Spartans had 21 assists on those 33 buckets. And thanks to the 23 boards combined from Taylor and Gaston, NSU held a 49-33 edge on the glass.
 
Taariq Cephas led the Eagles with 16 points, while Sterling Smith and Arnold Fripp each added 15. CSU shot 28-of-76 overall (36.8 percent), including a 6-of-35 effort from beyond the arc.
 
NSU jumped out to a 10-3 lead, capped by a layup by senior Malik Thomas, just four minutes into the game. After the Eagles cut the deficit to three, Thomas hit three 3-pointers within a span of 1:03 for a 19-10 lead at the 13:47 mark. A little later, freshman Zaynah Robinson's jumper finished a 10-3 run to put NSU up 29-15 before the clock hit the 10-minute mark.
 
Gaston had a pair of buckets with less than eight minutes to go, both times pushing the Spartan lead to 14. Over the last five and a half minutes of the half, though, Coppin State outscored Norfolk State 14-5 to close the gap to 42-37 at the break.
 
CSU held a 16-3 advantage in points off turnovers at the half, despite NSU having just seven giveaways in the first stanza. The Eagles finished with a 21-10 edge for the game.
 
Thomas added 14 points, five assists and four rebounds for NSU. He and Short combined to hit 6-of-13 from 3-point range. Robinson, meanwhile, contributed eight points, four rebounds and two steals while also playing 14 minutes in the second half and 18 altogether.
 
NSU will head out on the road to take on Mount St. Mary's this Saturday.