12th-Ranked Antelopes Defeat NDNU

Tuesday, January 18

Belmont, CA

5:30 p.m.

Grand Canyon

13-3 (1-1)

Notre Dame de Namur

6-8 (3-2)

GCU-WBB

Notre Dame de Namur

Samantha Murphy and Jallisa Butler had 19 and 16 points, respectively in GCU's 74-51 win over NDNU.

1/18/2011 10:35:50 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Four score in double figures

By: Steve Heath

On the day informed of its highest national ranking in school history, No. 12 Grand Canyon celebrated with a much-needed Pacific West Conference road win Tuesday.

At Walter Gleason Gym, Grand Canyon (13-2, 1-1) defeated Notre Dame de Namur (6-8, 3-2) 74-51.

It was the first of three road games in northern California. The Antelopes play at Academy of Art, in San Francisco, Thursday and at Dominican, in San Rafael, Saturday.

“I think we were all excited about the ranking, but our ranking in the conference coming in was eighth and that ranking meant a little more to us,” said GCU senior All-America candidate Samantha Murphy (Phoenix, AZ, Xavier Prep), who led all scorers with 19 points. She also added seven assists. “We lost our last game (after winning 11 in a row) and we wanted to get another winning streak started. There were a lot of factors (coming into this game) and we executed the game plan very well.”

GCU led from start to finish and improved its all-time record to 7-0 at Gleason Gym and 11-3 against NDNU.

Jallisa Butler (Las Vegas, Nev., Cimarron, Barstow CC) added 16 points and was one of three players to grab a team-high seven rebounds. Senior guard Rosalyn Nelson (Phoenix, AZ, Deer Valley) had seven boards to go with 12 points, three assists and two blocked shots.

With seven rebounds, Nelson has 469 for her career, moving up to No. 5 on the all-time list, passing Veronica Gonzales, who had 467 from 1998-2000.

Joslynn Frazier (Sacramento, Calif., Burbank, College of Canyons) picked off seven caroms and had four points. Junior Stevie Kamp (Mesa, Ariz., Mountain View, Nova Southeastern) had a season-high 11 points to go with six rebounds.

“With not playing for 10 days we were anxious to get back on the floor,” said coach Trent May, whose club’s last game was an 85-72 loss at No. 13 Dixie State on Jan. 8. “We did a good job with our game plan and coming out and executing it. There could have been a lot of distractions, but we came out and got off to a good start. I’m pleased with our overall effort and the way we played team basketball tonight.”

When Murphy hit the first of two first-half 3-pointers, GCU led 15-5 with only 4:36 off the clock. The Antelopes extended the lead to 18, 38-20, when Murphy scored seven straight points, four off free throws and the other three on her second trey. Grand Canyon led 42-26 at the break. Murphy had 14 and Butler had 10.

A Nelson bucket gave GCU its biggest lead, 70-42.

Box Score