'Lopes drop exhibition opener at UNLV

Tuesday, November 2

Las Vegas, NV

7:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

UNLV (exhibition)

Freshman Chris Johnson had seven points and a team-high six rebounds in his GCU-debut at UNLV Tuesday.

11/2/2010 10:07:25 PM | Men's Basketball

Outscore Runnin' Rebels in second half

By: Steve Heath

Grand Canyon played a strong second half against one of Division I’s top teams, but was unable to bring home a victory in a 90-66 loss against University of Nevada-Las Vegas at Thomas and Mack Center Tuesday.

GCU was unable to overcome the Runnin’ Rebels hot-shooting first half, but outscored the hosts – who are receiving votes in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll – 41-40 in the second half.

“We played a pretty good basketball team,” said GCU coach Russ Pennell. “They were an NCAA tournament team last year and I think they’ll be in the Top 25 before the year's over.

“They’re deep and experienced and it’s good for us (to play a team like that). We need that competition early in the season.”

A 3-pointer from junior point guard Kyle Speed (Seattle, Wash., Lake Washington, Johnson County CC) cut it to 9-7, but the Runnin’ Rebels' hot first-half shooting never cooled off. UNLV hit 19-of-23 (82.6 percent) first-half field goals and led 50-25 at the break.

“We’re still learning with seven new guys and we’re only going to get better,” said GCU senior center Gaby Ngoundjo (Douala, Cameroon, Little Rock Christian, Charlotte). “I was pretty happy with the second half. We played much better.”

Trailing 66-40, GCU went on a 20-13 run to cut it to 79-60 with 5:12 remaining. During that span, sophomore guard Steven Morin (Scottsdale, Ariz., Saguaro) scored all of his game-high 11 points. He hit three 3-pointers and scored off his blocked shot when he tipped in a Fletcher Wynn (Orlando, Fla., Apopka, Louisburg College) miss. Wynn, Ngoundjo and senior Rony Tchatchoua (Douala, Cameroon, Little Rock Christian, New Hampshire) all contributed field goals during the run, which started on a 3-pointer from Braylon Pickrel (Mesa, Ariz., Red Mountain, Mesa CC).

“I thought we played really hard,” said Pennell. “The guys were disappointed at halftime ... In the second half; they regathered their poise and fought.”
Ngoundjo finished with nine points. Wynn, Pickrel, Nick Witherill (Phoenix, Ariz., Highland, Washington State) and Chris Johnson (Phoenix, Ariz., Highland) each had seven. Johnson had a team-high six rebounds.

Over 300 Grand Canyon fans were among the 9,306 in attendance.

Grand Canyon plays its second and final exhibition game of the preseason at Utah State Friday. The ‘Lopes open the regular season Nov. 12 at Utah.

Box Score