Packed House Sees GCU Topple BYU-Hawai'i

Saturday, January 29

GCU

12:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

BYU-Hawai'i

Senior Gaby Ngoundjo had 15 points and 13 rebounds in Saturday's 69-64 win over BYU-Hawai'i.

1/29/2011 7:45:10 PM | Men's Basketball

'Lopes move into tie for first

By: Steve Heath

In front of a packed Antelope Gymnasium and nationally-televised audience, Grand Canyon (10-6, 5-1) won for the eighth time in its last nine games and climbed into a tie for first place in the Pacific West Conference with a 69-64 win over BYU-Hawai’i (10-5, 5-1) Saturday.

A vocal and supportive crowd of 1,905 saw GCU go on a 10-0 run to take a 61-54 lead with 3:11 remaining. The ‘Lopes thwarted a comeback and Kyle Speed (Seattle, Wash., Lake Washington, Johnson County CC) and Brad Carroll (Chandler, Ariz., Corona del Sol, Milwaukee) hit free throws down the stretch to ice the game televised by CBS College Sports Network.

“I’m most excited for the Grand Canyon family more than anything else,” said coach Russ Pennell.

“I hope that we, as a university, can see we have rallying points -- whether it’s a play on campus, a concert, a basketball game -- where we come together and celebrate and have fun,” added Pennell, of the lively fans at Antelope Gym. “Certainly, the win makes it very, very special and sweet, but the crowd and whole atmosphere was electric.”

A Speed 3-pointer tied the game 54-54 with 5:56 to go. Steven Morin (Scottsdale, Ariz., Saguaro) followed with a jumper off a Speed pass and Carroll increased the GCU momentum with another trey to give the ‘Lopes a 59-54 lead with 4:34 left. Justin Wesolowski (Mesa, Ariz., Mountain View, Northern Colorado), who had a season-high 12 points, connected on a jumper to wrap up the run to up the margin to seven, 61-54.

Saturday’s win caps off a fantastic week for the Antelopes. On Thursday, they beat Chaminade. Both BYU-Hawai’i and Chaminade were unbeaten in league play heading into the contests.

GCU, BYU-Hawai’i and Chaminade all have one conference loss. Chaminade was to play at Dixie State later Saturday night.

“Anytime you have the two top teams in the league come into your building to play you have to get up for those games,” said Speed, who equaled a season-high with seven assists. He also had nine points. “Our game plan, we just wanted to execute and get the job done and take care of our homecourt.”

It was a good two games for the team and a good two games for senior center Gaby Ngoundjo (Douala, Cameroon, Little Rock Christian, Charlotte). For the second straight game, Ngoundjo recorded a double-double. He had 15 points and 13 rebounds Saturday. Both numbers one shy of career highs. In Thursday’s victory, he had 12 points and 12 boards.

GCU led by as much as 11, 36-25 with 1:30 to go until halftime, but BYU-Hawai’i came back to cut it to five, 36-31. After Wesolowski’s bucket gave GCU a seven-point lead late in the first half, the Seasiders bounced back again and cut it to one point, 63-62 with 32.4 seconds to go.

“They are the standard in our league,” said Pennell of BYUH. “They’ve won the conference two or three years in a row and knocked on the door of the Elite 8 in Springfield, Mass. They’re the type of program we aspire to be; to win year in and year out and be a threat to win a national championship.”

The GCU defense held BYUH to 38.8 percent shooting. It was the team’s 12^th straight game and 15^th out of 16 on the season holding an opponent under 50 percent.

“I think we grew up as a team,,” said Ngoundjo of Saturday’s win. “We kept our composure. It’s going to happen, they’re going to make plays. We’re going to make plays and we were able to come up with the victory.”

Nick Witherill (Phoenix, Ariz., Highland, Washington State)added 11 points. Speed was second on the team in rebounds with four. Ngoundjo added three blocked shots. Going 4-for-4 at the line in the game's final 20 seconds, Carroll extended his consecutive free throw streak to 20.

Prior to Saturday's game, GCU had lost six straight to BYUH. The win was the first at Antelope Gym over the Seasiders since Jan. 5, 2008.

BYU-Hawai’i was led by Jet Chang with a game-high 23.

CBS Sports Network Highlights

CBS Sports Network Post Game

Box Score