Coppens shoots, scores for Brandeis

Brandeis University guard Joe Coppens stepped to the free-throw line last Sunday with a chance to reach a personal milestone and keep his team in the game.

The 2004 Rockland High graduate sank both free throws, netting his 1,000th career point in the Judges' 84-81 win over Carnegie Mellon. It was all part of 23-point, 6-rebound night for the 6-foot-3 senior as Brandeis rallied back from an 8-point deficit for the University Athletic Association victory.

The milestone is nice, but Coppen is more interested in his team's success. The Judges (18-4 overall, 8-3 in the UAA) moved up to sixth in this week's Division 3 national poll.

Brandeis coach Brian Meehan said the ranking is an achievement at any level.

"It shows a level of consistency and hard work," Meehan said of Coppens, who became the 26th Brandeis player to score 1,000 points.

He also was a 1,000-point scorer at Rockland, which he led to a state title in 2004.

"He plays with some good players who allow him to get open shots, and he's a very unselfish player on top of it all," Meehan said.

When he was a freshman, Coppens said, he struggled in his transition to the college game, trying to find his role on the team.

"You come in saying, 'I want to make a good impression my first year,' and I felt like I could have played a lot better than I did," Coppens said.

"I came in and I didn't really know what role I would have on the team. Last year, I forgot about that and let everything flow. I didn't worry about what role I had, and it took a lot of pressure off of me. I was able to shoot the ball better and click a little bit more."

His contributions became even more important this season when senior forward Steve DeLuca went down with an injury. Coppens has stepped forward to lead the Judges in scoring (15.8 points a game) and minutes played (33.3).

Before the 2006-2007 season, Coppens missed time because of eye surgery, which prevented him from participating in much of the endurance training that he said would have benefited him toward the end of the season.

This year, Coppens said, he feels stronger and, at the most important part of the season, he is at his best. Meehan said he can see the difference.

"He moves real well without the ball, which makes him really difficult to defend," Meehan said. "He gets tough shots, too. He's just gotten so much stronger as he's gone along."

The first meeting of the spring season for the Duxbury Bay Maritime School junior rowing teams will be Wednesday night at 7 in the Merry Room of the Duxbury Free Library.

Registration, dates, and costs will be discussed. All levels of experience are welcome.

The program has enjoyed success recently, with the girls' varsity team winning gold medals at the state championships in the fall and the boys' varisty and boys' novice capturing silver.

For more information, call 781-934-7555 or visit dbms.org.

Seven area athletes performed in the Bay State Skate Figure Skating Show on Feb 2 at the Lansing Chapman Ice Rink in Williamstown.

The 23d annual show featured 19 skaters from Massachusetts.

Individual performers included Amy Sterling of Mansfield, Brianna Byrne of Bridgewater, Nicole Perry of Raynham, Ashley Coraine of Braintree, Mia Corsini of North Easton, Kaitlyn Henry of Scituate, and Jaimee Fernald of Braintree.

The group performed before more than 1,000 fans for two hours.

The event was part of the 24th annual Bay State Winter Games in Berkshire County. More than 700 athletes competed in Alpine skiing, ice hockey, and figure skating.

The Notre Dame Academy gymnastics team recently completed its first undefeated season in program history and finished first in the Cranberry Conference North Division.

The Hingham school finished first in the division of seven teams, also a first for the program.

Coach Nicole Bellows led the team, which included captains Caroline MacIsaac and Lauren McDermott of Scituate and Corinne Reddington of Canton.

The Duxbury boys' lacrosse team is ranked No. 23 in the nation by the STX/insidelacrosse.com preseason high school poll. Duxbury won its fourth consecutive MIAA state championship last season and is one of two Massachusetts teams represented in the poll. Deerfield is No. 25. The No. 1 team in the country is Loyola-Blakefield in Towson, Md.

Monique Walker can be reached at mwalker@globe.com.