Coppin State women’s basketball is no stranger to taking on the giants of the sport, specifically those in the SEC.
During the 2025-26 season alone, Coppin State visited Tennessee, faced Oklahoma and Georgia in neutral-site games and hosted South Carolina. The Eagles fell to the Lady Vols, 88-35, in Knoxville on Nov. 23 last year, but they had a chance to show improvement in Baltimore early this season on Nov. 5. Coppin lost, 98-60, though Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell was impressed by the steps forward the Eagles had taken.
“They had pressure — that was definitely different,” Caldwell said of Coppin’s defensive intensity. “They had pressure on the 3-point line, they really took away a lot of what we wanted to do early on in the game. They scored the ball a lot better than they did at this time last year. It’s early for us and it’s early for them. It’s interesting — I was talking to [Eagles head coach Darrell Mosley] before the game about how your teams are going to grow and change. … We’re going to look different by the end of the year and so are they.”
It marked the first time in Tennessee’s history that the program ventured to a historically-Black college or university as the road team. That’s 1,547 games, 19 regular-season conference championships, 16 conference tournament championships, 44 NCAA Tournament trips, 18 Final Four appearances and eight national championships in 46 seasons. None of the games were played at an HBCU.
Texas transfer forward Aaliyah Moore, who scored 11 points on Nov. 5, appreciated the significance of the moment in front of a partisan Coppin crowd.
“I just think that’s pretty cool and I thank Coach Kim for putting that on the schedule because not a lot of coaches would do that — going to their home,” Moore said. “It was a great environment. We need tests like that because it’s going to get harder and harder, but I think it’s a pretty cool fact, especially being a Black athlete. I’m very happy that we were able to come here and play.”
Former Maryland women’s basketball standout Kaylene Smikle, who spent the last two years in College Park, returned to the area, as did Waldorf native Zhen Craft and Upper Marlboro native Kennedy Fauntleroy.
Fauntleroy’s college basketball path is one of many turns. She began at Georgetown (2022-23), before spending a season each at Oklahoma State (2023-24), Arizona State (2024-25) and East Carolina (2025-26). This was not her first time playing at the Physical Education Complex. Arizona State visited Coppin on Dec. 5, 2024, when she was on the Sun Devils. Coppin upset Arizona State, 74-68. Fauntleroy had six points.
This time, Fauntleroy had 12 points, seven assists, three steals and a block in her own revenge game. Sitting on the opposite side of the court was Mosley, who was an assistant at Arizona State from 2023-2025. He was happy to see Fauntleroy in the starting lineup.
“I honestly think she should have started for us,” Mosley said of Fauntleroy’s time at Arizona State. “She was really a kid that was pesky and on defense, could score. My head coach had her pick in another guard, so she battled every day in practice. She came off the bench and gave us that same spark. To see her leave Arizona State and have the year she had last year in East Carolina — got the numbers, got the stats and now you’ve got the opportunity to go to a big-time school at Tennessee.”
Freshman forward Gabby Minus added 12 points to go with 12 from Fauntleroy, 11 from Moore and 9 from Jada Eads. Minus was a four-star recruit in the Class of 2026, according to ESPN. She always wanted to be part of the program.
“I would just say that Coach [Caldwell] has been great through the whole process,” Minus said. “She’s still confident in her system — I just wanted to give her an opportunity not just leave based on other situations.”
“And Gabby was great,” Caldwell said, chiming in on Minus’ recruitment. “Anytime we talk, she’s like, ‘I want to be a Lady Vol, I want to be a Lady Vol. You don’t have to worry about that. You don’t have to worry about me.’ She’ll always have a special place in my heart because of that.”
Anya George led all Coppin State scorers with 13 points. Her teammates deferred to her throughout the night, but she went 4-for-15 and had six turnovers. The UMass transfer guard was ecstatic about the opportunity because she believes the Eagles have new heights to potentially soar to.
“I would say the hype — we live for it,” George said. “We never back down, so this was a big opportunity for all of us, especially for our freshmen. We had three freshmen on the floor at the same time. It was an opportunity, but it was really an opportunity and we stepped up to it. So, I definitely looked up to my teammates for not backing down and then we went out there with a fight, we gave it our all.”