Red-hot 'Lopes pound Southern Indiana, 93-67

Saturday, November 20

GCU

5:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

4-1

Southern Indiana

2-1

Southern Indiana

Grand Canyon

Kristi Girdley had eight assists in Saturday's win over Southern Indiana.

11/20/2010 7:15:01 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Murphy, Nelson hit new marks

By: Steve Heath

Grand Canyon tightened up its defense in the final 8:38 of the first half – it held Southern Indiana to one field goal -- and extended a four-point lead to a 21-point halftime advantage in a 93-67 victory in the GCU/Crowne Plaza Tip-Off Classic at Antelope Gymnasium Saturday.

GCU went 2-0 in the classic and improved to 4-1 overall. Southern Indiana dropped to 2-1. Both teams have been receiving votes in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll. USI was receiving 16 points and Grand Canyon had six.

On Saturday, it was all Grand Canyon.

Samantha Murphy (Phoenix, AZ, Xavier Prep) finished with 27 points and eight steals. Rosalyn Nelson (Phoenix, AZ, Deer Valley)had 19 points, 10 assists and no turnovers.

Grand Canyon went on a 15-0 first-half run, six coming from junior Joslynn Frazier (Sacramento, Calif., Burbank, College of Canyons), to stretch a 24-20 lead to 39-20 with 4:28 left until the break. By halftime, the lead was 48-27.

“Our defense picked up its intensity ten-fold from the start,” said Murphy. “We got steals and utilized our steals. We’re a fast team and we were able to get our transition game going.”

Early in the second half, Murphy and Nelson each hit personal milestones. With her 20^th point, Murphy, already the program’s all-time leader in points hit the 1,500 mark for her career. Nelson, with her fifth assist of the night, reached the 400 mark. She, too, is the all-time leader in the category, as well as, the all-time leader in steals.

Murphy had eight steals, one away from the school record, set four times, the last by Nelson in 2006. Nelson was just two shy of her career high in assists. Kristi Girdley (Aliso Viejo, CA, Aliso Niguel) added eight assists.

“I’m extremely proud of our girls,” said coach Trent May. “We’ve put two weekends of strong basketball together.

Grand Canyon shot 57.1 percent from the field and 88.9 percent (16-of-18) from the line. From the field, Murphy was 9-of-14 and Nelson was 9-of-15.

Off the bench, freshmen Maylinn Smith (Gilbert, Ariz., Mesquite) and Jenna Pearson (Gilbert, Ariz., Gilbert Christian) had 11 and nine points, respectively. Frazier finished with eight points on 3-of-3 field goals and 2-of-2 free throws.

GCU had 26 assists on 36 made basket, 15 steals and only 10 turnovers.

GCU will host the GCU Thanksgiving Classic Friday and Saturday, playing Lake Superior State at 5 p.m. Friday and CSU Dominguez Hills at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Box Score