Grand Canyon opens key four-game swing in Pacific

Brandon Dempster had warning overtones in his voice.

"We've got to put this game behind us because we won't beat any of those teams in Hawaii if we play like this," GCU's senior guard said in the post-game moments after putting away what he called a lesser opponent.

Now the Antelopes (9-8, 2-2 PacWest) embark on a four-game, nine-day critical conference road trip to two islands in Hawaii, beginning with Saturday's 7:30 p.m. HT tip-off at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo, whom the Lopes beat by three 10 days ago. Hilo (10-7, 3-3) has won two straight.

Following the trip to the big island of Hilo, GCU will have three games beginning Tuesday at Hawai'i Pacific (7-8, 1-4) in a five-day span. The Lopes will play at No. 4 BYU-Hawaii (14-1, 5-0) on Thursday and Chaminade (9-8, 5-3) next Saturday.

Grand Canyon trails all but Hawai'i Pacific in the conference chase for the championship, but the Antelopes have not seen either HPU or BYU-Hawaii, which owns the West Region's No. 1 ranking, this season.

"We definitely need to pick our game up," Grand Canyon senior guard Milee Karre said. "We have to be focused as a team because there's a lot of temptations over there."

GCU has a new coaching staff which vowed to allow a little wow factor in Hawaii this year. In previous years, it was all about basketball and players couldn't get near the water. Now there may be a blend of fun and shooting under coach Dan Nichols. How that translates on the basketball court remains to be seen.

"It should be business," said Dempster, who has been soured by a declining scoring production on his own part in recent weeks. "We want to have fun, too, but we're not gonna be having fun if we're not winning some games."

Hilo split with GCU on the big island last year. Jay DeMaestri's 36 points in the final game between the two schools is the most any player scored against GCU in the past two seasons. He had 21 in the meeting here two weeks ago. He is the second leading scorer in the PacWest at 18.4 per game and the top rebounder at 9.8. Hilo teammate John Smith is third in scoring at 17.2.

Hawai'i Pacific's Jason Curtis is scoring 16.9 per game, which ranks fourth in the PacWest, and BYU-Hawaii's Lucas Alves is the league's top scorer at 20.1 ppg and second-leading rebounder at 8.6. Alves is one of the top 30 scorers in NCAA Division II. Chaminade's Joel Smith is scoring 14.7 ppg, and Silverswords teammate Mohamed Tangara is scoring 13.8, which ranks eighth in the league, and pulling down 8.3 rebounds, which stands third.

BYU's Trenson Akana is scoring 13.4 ppg, which is tied for ninth, and HPU's Jeff Ingram is averaging 12.7, which stands 10th.

Needless to say, even with Grand Canyon's Dave Cuen (pictured main page) and Engen Nurumbi (pictured rebounding) ranking fifth (15.0 ppg) and sixth (14.8 ppg, 7.1 reb), respectively among league scoring leaders, the Lopes are about to face the most stern test against some of the league's best in the next week.

"That first day (in Hawaii) is gonna be really rough," Karre said. "It's kind of a scare. It's gonna be all new to everyone. It's gonna be tiring with all the travel. It's gonna be important to start with a win."

Grand Canyon is searching for its first three-game win streak of the year on Saturday.

"That's been our problem this year, is being complacent," said Karre, who is coming off a season-high in assists with five on Wednesday. "Consistency is the main thing we need to work on."

Grand Canyon University Athletics

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