{"id":5449,"date":"2026-11-05T17:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T17:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/?p=5449"},"modified":"2026-11-06T17:41:00","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T17:41:00","slug":"coppin-state-womens-basketball-makes-history-as-first-hbcu-to-host-tennessee-lady-vols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/?p=5449","title":{"rendered":"Coppin State Women\u2019s Basketball Makes History as First HBCU to Host Tennessee Lady Vols"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Story and photos by Shawn Payne
Thursday, November 5, 2026 | Physical Education Complex Arena, Baltimore, Maryland
NCAA Division I Women\u2019s Basketball | Non-conference<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BALTIMORE \u2014 Coppin State made history Thursday night when it welcomed the Tennessee Lady Vols to PEC Arena. For the first time in the Tennessee women\u2019s basketball program\u2019s history, the eight-time national champions played on the home court of a historically Black college or university. The 1,619 fans in attendance saw Coppin erase an early seven-point deficit, tie the game twice and finish the first quarter just two points behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Coppin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Coppin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Coppin<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tennessee\u2019s visit continued a six-season stretch in which Coppin has brought a power-conference opponent to Baltimore each year. Maryland came first in 2021, followed by Pitt, LSU, Arizona State and South Carolina. The Eagles had faced Tennessee once before, an 88\u201335 loss in Knoxville last November. This time, head coach Darrell Mosley\u2019s team got the rematch at home, three nights after opening its season with an 80\u201369 win over Cheyney. The Lady Vols arrived with a win of their own after former Maryland guard Kaylene Smikle scored 31 points in a 109\u201362 victory over Duquesne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coppin missed its first seven shots Thursday before sophomore Anya George put the Eagles on the board with a three-pointer at the 4:42 mark. Shanaii Gamble followed with a layup off a pass from freshman Bray\u2019ana Miles, and two Delaney Cooper free throws brought Coppin level at 7\u20137. Karen Nimo tied it again at 8\u20138. After Tennessee went back up by four, Miles found freshman Arly Zapata for a layup with 40 seconds left to make it 12\u201310.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Coppin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Coppin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Coppin<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Eagles\u2019 strongest stretch came early in the second quarter, just as Tennessee appeared ready to pull away. Down 26\u201313, Coppin turned to Seimone Newton, who was making her college debut after missing all of last season. Newton hit a jumper, then sank a three off a pass from Miles. On Coppin\u2019s next basket, Miles found Samari Taylor for a layup. Tennessee broke up the run with a free throw before George set up Gamble for the layup that made it 27\u201322 with 6:35 left in the half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Coppin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Coppin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Coppin<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tennessee rebuilt its lead, but George gave Coppin a chance to go into halftime down 12 when she hit a three with 38 seconds left. Aaliyah Moore answered seven seconds later to send the Lady Vols into the break ahead 42\u201327. Then Smikle took over. She opened the third quarter with a three-pointer, added a layup four seconds later and turned a steal into another basket. Her second three put Tennessee ahead 52\u201327 and brought a Coppin timeout with 7:20 on the clock. Smikle had scored all 10 points of the half to that point. By the end of the quarter, the Lady Vols led 75\u201339.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Coppin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Coppin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Coppin<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Coppin scored 21 in the fourth, its highest-scoring quarter, and finished the night shooting 39.6 percent to Tennessee\u2019s 39.0 percent. The Lady Vols, however, took 77 shots to Coppin\u2019s 53. They scored 32 points off 29 Eagles turnovers, won the rebounding battle 50\u201336 and hit 13 three-pointers. Smikle finished with a game-high 18 points, while freshman Gabby Minus added 12 points and 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Coppin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Coppin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Coppin<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

George led Coppin with 13 points, and freshman Jayleen Jones added 12, including six at the free-throw line. Freshman Bray\u2019ana Miles played 39 minutes against Tennessee\u2019s press and handed out six assists. Inside, Samari Taylor contributed eight points and seven rebounds, while Gamble led the Eagles with eight boards. Coppin heads into its first road game at 1\u20131 and will visit Central Connecticut State on Monday, November 9, at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final score \u2014 Tennessee 98, Coppin State 60<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch the official game highlights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story and photos by Shawn PayneThursday, November 5, 2026 | Physical Education Complex Arena, Baltimore, MarylandNCAA Division I Women\u2019s Basketball | Non-conference BALTIMORE \u2014 Coppin State made history Thursday night when it welcomed the Tennessee Lady Vols to PEC Arena. For the first time in the Tennessee women\u2019s basketball program\u2019s history, the eight-time national champions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158,160,159,157],"tags":[110,132,172,178,176,162],"class_list":["post-5449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-meac","category-ncaa-division-1","category-womens-basketball","tag-coppin-state","tag-meac","tag-ncaa-div-1","tag-physical-education-complex","tag-tennessee-university","tag-womens-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5449"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5456,"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449\/revisions\/5456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takethespacemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}