'Lopes Fall to ASU in Arena Debut

Saturday, November 5

GCU Arena

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Arizona State (Exhibition)

11/5/2011 10:44:00 PM | Men's Basketball

The Grand Canyon University men’s basketball team’s much anticipated GCU Arena debut did not disappoint.

For the record, Arizona State defeated Grand Canyon 89-69 at Grand Canyon University Arena in front of a sold-out crowd of 4,702.

The day was filled with food, music and all forms of entertainment outside of the arena before the game began. The night was filled with raucous students waving towels, rousing videos and pyrotechnic displays.

Once play began, Grand Canyon battled ASU hard, trailing 37-31 at the break.

Justin Wesolowski opened the scoring, but GCU quickly found themselves down 12-4 with just over five minutes gone in the game.

The Antelopes looked poised to take the lead into the half, closing the ASU margin to three at 27-24 with a 4:11 remaining, bringing the crowd to its feet. ASU, however, responded quickly to score the next six points to go into the half with the lead.

GCU shot just 29 percent in the first half compared to 45 percent for ASU.

Grand Canyon had a jump to open the second half, twice pulling the game within three in opening minutes. ASU stuck with their season theme to run more and slowly began pulling away, to take the win.

“I think this was a great night for Grand Canyon University,” said head coach Russ Pennell. “It was a full house, playing Arizona State, in this beautiful new arena. It was a great experience for our players, but we kind of ran out of gas there in the second half. Overall it was a great night for the GCU family.”

GCU was led this evening by Brad Carroll, who scored 15 points on 4-for-9 shooting, 3-for-7 from behind the arc. Wesolowski had a strong game, scoring 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Kyle Speed and Justin Foreman each had 11.

The ‘Lopes shot 37 percent from the floor, shooting 44 percent in the second half. ASU held a 42-29 advantage on the boards, after the two squads were even at 20-20 at the break.

The next step on the journey is the third and final exhibition game, this one against San Diego Christian on Nov. 8 at 6 p.m. in

GCU Arena.

“I’m looking for consistency,” said Pennell. “I think the tendency sometimes when you play someone like San Diego Christian, no disrespect to them, but we are coming off playing Oregon and Arizona State, I want to see if we have the maturity to play the same way we did tonight. We are really trying to get across to the guys that we don’t play according to what the jersey says on the other side. We have a style we try to play to and we stay with that process. I’m looking for that and for us to bounce back. Even though this game was a bit of a novelty, our guys wanted to win and anytime you lose you are little discouraged. Tuesday will give us an opportunity to bounce back.”

Tonight will be remembered by more than a final score. Tonight was a night when GCU opened its new arena doors to the community and showed them what GCU is about and what the future holds for the school and basketball program.

“The fans tonight were great,” added Pennell. “They were really excited early on when the game was close there for awhile. I could really hear them and I think this could be a great home court advantage. I hope they saw something they liked and they want to come back and watch this team play. I think this team is exciting and I know they will continue to play their hearts out for these fans.”

ASU 89 GCU 69