Antelopes downed by No. 24 CWU 56-52

Friday, December 3

Seattle, WA

5:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Central Washington

Kyle Speed

12/3/2010 7:43:19 PM | Men's Basketball

By: Steve Heath

Grand Canyon dropped to 2-4 on the season with a 56-52 loss to No. 24 Central Washington in the SPU Falcon Invitational at Brougham Pavilion in Seattle Friday.

Sophomore Brad Carroll led the Antelopes with 17 points. Junior point guard Kyle Speed and senior center Gaby Ngoundjo each scored nine points.

On a 3-pointer by Carroll with 1:18 to go, GCU took a 52-51 lead, but Central Washington answered when Jody Johnson beat the shot-clock buzzer with a two-pointer at the 45 second mark. GCU missed a shot with seven seconds to go and CWU hit 3-of-4 free throws in the final seconds.

“We played with urgency the last four and a half minutes. When we get that type of energy for the majority of the game, we’ll be fine,” said GCU coach Russ Pennell. “We left some points out there. We had some carelessness, and no offense to Central Washington, they didn’t have anything to do with it on those particular plays.

“We are playing quality teams close, but I’m sick of losing. We’ll do what we have to do to get out of this rut.”

Grand Canyon shot better from the field (46.7 percent to 33.3), made more field goals (21-19), but had an uncharacteristic 20 turnovers and made only four of 11 attempts at the free-throw line, compared to CWU’s 14-of-21. GCU was outrebounded 36-32, the Wildcats had 15 offensive boards.

“I feel like every game we keep beating ourselves,” said Speed. “We’ve got to stop doing that. When we stop doing that we’ll be fine.”

Junior Justin Wesolowski had a game-high seven rebounds. Freshman Chris Johnson added six. Speed had five assists. Speed and sophomore Barret Robbins each had two steals.

Jamar Berry led Central Washington (6-0) with a game-high 19 points.

Grand Canyon will play host Seattle Pacific at 7 p.m. PDT Saturday.

Box Score