GCU Ties Record With Ninth Straight Home Win

Saturday, January 29

GCU

2:25 p.m.

Grand Canyon

17-2, 5-1

BYU-Hawai'i

1-14, 0-6

BYU-Hawai'i

Grand Canyon

Samantha Murphy had 38 points in Saturday's 94-43 win over BYU-Hawai'i.

1/29/2011 9:27:22 PM | Women's Basketball

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Murphy scores 38 in win over BYUH

By: Steve Heath

Grand Canyon tied a school-record for consecutive wins at Antelope Gymnasium with a 94-43 victory over BYU-Hawai’i Saturday.

It was the 12th-ranked Antelopes ninth straight win at home. GCU is 8-0 at home this season. It won the last home game of the 2009-10 season.

GCU, ranked No. 6 in the West Region, improved to 17-2 overall and 5-1 in the Pacific West Conference. BYU-Hawai’i dropped to 1-14 and 0-6.

Samantha Murphy (Phoenix, AZ, Xavier Prep) scored 27 first-half points and finished the game with 38, the third highest total by a player in school history. She scored 49 earlier this season in a triple-overtime win against UC San Diego, even though she fouled out in the first overtime. In the inaugural 1988-89 season, Cindy Kinderknecht scored 40 points in a game.

“I didn’t know I had that much (in the first half),” said Murphy. “It was fun, things were going well.”

It was another stat-filled performance from the senior duo of Murphy and fellow guard Rosalyn Nelson (Phoenix, AZ, Deer Valley), who had 12 points, seven rebounds, seven steals and seven assists. Murphy also had seven rebounds, six assists and three steals.

GCU led by as much as 58 points. All 11 players played at least 10 minutes and all 11 had at least two rebounds. Nine different players scored. Nine different players had assists and eight different players had at least one steal.

GCU had 32 assists on 35 made baskets and helped force 34 BYUH turnovers.

“Everyone worked hard. Everyone contributed from bench to starters,” said Nelson. “We shared the ball well and when you play good defense, offense will come. Coach (Trent) May emphasizes that every day at practice.”

Junior Joslynn Frazier (Sacramento, Calif., Burbank, College of Canyons) had a season-high 12 points. She has had back-to-back double-figure games, after scoring 11 Thursday against Chaminade.

Senior Kristi Girdley (Aliso Viejo, CA, Aliso Niguel) and freshman Maylinn Smith (Mesa, Ariz., Mesquite) each had five assists. Smith added four steals.

“Our objective this week was to play four good halves of basketball,” said May, whose club set a record for margin of victory Thursday with a 105-36 win over Chaminade. “We could have stopped at three (after leading 50-21 at half), but I encouraged the girls to finish strong and to continue to build on our objective to play four really good halves.”

GCU will have a chance to avenge its lone conference loss when it plays host to No. 11 Dixie State at 3 p.m. Feb. 5.

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