BATON ROUGE, La. -- Coppin State, which had been so close so many times in the past two seasons against bigger basketball schools, finally broke through with a 69-66 upset of LSU last night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Coppin (2-6), which trailed by as many as 11 early in the second half, took the lead for good, 61-60, on two free throws by Stephen Stewart with 52.5 seconds left. Coppin hit all eight of its remaining free throws.
"It was a game in which we stuck together. We went through our lapses, but we stayed together down the stretch and played well," said Stewart, who finished with 17 points and a season-high 10 rebounds.
"It feels like a big monkey off my back," he said. "We always knew we could win these type of games, even when we were losing. We knew that one of these games we would put it all together."
Sidney Goodman led Coppin with a season-high 26 points. Stewart hit 10 of 11 free-throw attempts and Coppin hit 17 of 21 overall for a season-high 81 percent, but shot 37.5 percent from the field.
"Goodman and Stewart have been to these battles so many times," said Coppin coach Fang Mitchell, whose team has lost five games by six points or less against teams from leagues much bigger than the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
"For them to have that opportunity to taste that sweet victory, it means a lot to them, especially beating a quality team like LSU."
LSU (4-3) of the Southeastern Conference, which shot just 32.8 percent from the field, lost its third game in a row. Reserve forward Landers Nolley led LSU with a career-high 20 points and Ronnie Henderson added 19. Randy Livingston added 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
"They were a good team," said LSU coach Dale Brown. "They're a senior-dominated team that has played on the road. They were destined to upset somebody and we were that upset."
Coppin, which led by as many as six points early, went to halftime behind by 34-25 in the first meeting ever between the schools.
LSU had taken a 4-0 lead, but the Eagles stormed back with 10 straight points, going ahead 10-4 on two free throws by Stewart with 16:05 left in the half. But that was the end of the Coppin offense for the next 5 1/2 minutes.
LSU, too, was shooting poorly, but forged ahead 11-10 on a short shot in the lane by its only senior, forward Clarence Ceasar.
LSU, coming off a 20-point loss to UCLA on Saturday and a 44-point whipping by Oklahoma State on Thursday, took advantage of poor Coppin shooting to boost the lead.
Nolley hit a three-pointer with 43 seconds left to put the Tigers ahead 34-25 at halftime.
LSU scored first in the second half to take its biggest lead, 36-25, but Coppin outscored the Tigers 26-5 over the next nine minutes.
Coppin's biggest lead was 10 points, when Stewart's basket made it 51-41. Included in the run were 10 points by Goodman.
Coppin twice regained the lead, but LSU finally went back ahead, 58-57, with 2:18 left on two free throws by Henderson. He scored the next basket to give LSU a 60-57 lead. A drive by Allen Watson and two free throws, with 52.5 seconds left, by Stewart put Coppin back ahead, 61-60.