Grand Canyon wins fifth straight game

Saturday, November 27

GCU

5:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

6-1

Cal State Dominguez Hills

0-5

CSU Dominguez Hills

Grand Canyon

Samantha Murphy (20) goes up for two of her 30 points in Saturday's game with CSU Dominguez Hills.

11/27/2010 7:12:06 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Nelson closing in on No. 2 scoring spot

By: Steve Heath

Grand Canyon won its fifth straight game with a 79-53 victory over CSU Dominguez Hills in the GCU/Crowne Plaza Thanksgiving Classic at Antelope Gymnasium Saturday.

It’s the second straight weekend the Antelopes have swept a classic. It defeated Queens College and Southern Indiana in last week’s GCU/Crowne Plaza Tip-Off Classic. The ‘Lopes beat Lake Superior State to open the Thanksgiving tournament Friday.

GCU, which went into the weekend third among others receiving votes in the USA Today/ESPN Today Division II Top 25 Poll, is 6-1 on the season and will travel to St. George, Utah next weekend for the PacWest/GNAC Challenge. GCU will play No. 6 Seattle Pacific Friday at 3 p.m. and Northwest Nazarene Saturday, Dec. 4 at 1 p.m.

Grand Canyon led most of the way Saturday but didn’t pull away until the middle of the second half. An 11-0 run began with 12:51 to go and upped the ‘Lopes lead from nine, 45-36, to 20, 56-36.

“All good things come from playing good defense,” said GCU coach Trent May, whose club helped force 33 Dominguez Hills turnovers, and 31.4 field-goal shooting for the game.

Grand Canyon had over one-half of its points (41) off turnovers.

“We picked up our pressure (in the second half),” said senior guard Samantha Murphy (Phoenix, AZ, Xavier Prep), who finished with a game-high 30 points and five steals. “Our offense starts with our defense.”

Senior guard Rosalyn Nelson (Phoenix, AZ, Deer Valley) added 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds. She’s inching closing to moving up to No. 2 on the school’s all-time scoring list. Nelson has 1,273 for her career. Jennifer Cobb, who starred from 2002-07, is currently second with 1,281.

Junior Jallisa Butler (Las Vegas, Nev., Cimarron) finished with 11 points. Nelson and senior Kristi Girdley (Aliso Viejo, CA, Aliso Niguel)each had five assists.

Grand Canyon out-rebounded Dominguez Hills 48-31. Murphy, Butler and junior Stevie Kamp (Mesa, Ariz., Mountain View) each had six. Kemp added eight points and three assists. Freshman Maylinn Smith (Gilbert, Ariz., Mesquite)had seven points, five rebounds and three steals.

CSU Dominguez Hills dropped to 0-5.

Box Score