GCU knocks off No. 5 Seattle Pacific 74-69

Friday, December 3

St. George, UT

3:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

7-1, 0-0PWC

Seattle Pacific

2-1, 0-0GNAC

Seattle Pacific

Grand Canyon

Samantha Murphy

12/3/2010 5:32:19 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Nelson moves into second on all-time scoring list

By: Steve Heath

Grand Canyon finished the game on an 18-4 run to knock off No. 5 Seattle Pacific 74-69 in the PacWest/GNAC Challenge at Dixie State College in St. George, Utah Friday.

Senior guard Samantha Murphy led all scorers with 27 points. Off the bench, freshman Maylinn Smith had 16 points and eight rebounds.

Senior guard Rosalyn Nelson had 12 points and moved into the No. 2 spot on the school’s all-time scoring list. Nelson has 1,285 points. She passed Jennifer Cobb, who scored 1,281 from 2002-07. Murphy is the program’s all-time leader with 1,581.

GCU was down nine points, 65-56, with 5:52 left.

“I’m proud of our grit,” said GCU head coach Trent May. “We refused to give up. We weren’t playing well and we were down nine. We could have easily said it’s just not our night, but top to bottom, we refused to let that happen.”

Senior Katie Johnson had her lone field goal, at the 2:13 mark, to give GCU the lead 70-69. She was 4-for-4 at the free-throw line.

Murphy was 11-of-20 from the field and had 19 second-half points. Junior Jallisa Butler had six points and six rebounds.

Grand Canyon is 7-1 on the season. Friday’s win is its second over a nationally-ranked team. GCU beat then-No. 11 UCSD 120-118 in triple overtime at the Disney Tip-Off Classic on Nov. 14. The ‘Lopes are fourth among those receiving votes in the USA Today/ESPN Division II Top 25 Poll.

It was the first loss of the season for SPU. The Falcons fall to 2-1.

GCU will play Northwest Nazarene at 1 p.m. Saturday in its second and final game of the challenge.

Box Score