Canyon Opens PacWest Play with a Win Over NDNU

Saturday, December 3

GCU Arena

6:30 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Notre Dame de Namur

12/3/2011 7:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball

The Grand Canyon University men’s basketball team won their Pacific West Conference opener tonight, defeating Notre Dame de Namur, 76-66, at Grand Canyon University Arena in Phoenix.

With the win, GCU moved to 4-1 overall, 1-0 in the PacWest. NDNU fell to 2-4 overall, 0-1 in conference play.

The Antelopes used a 14-for-16 effort from the foul line in the final three and half minutes to turn a one-point game into a double-digit win.

With the ‘Lopes leading 60-59 with just over four minutes remaining, Kyle Speed missed a driving layup, but was followed up by Braylon Pickrel, who slammed the ball home for a three-point lead. From there the Antelopes would score their next 14 points from the line to close out the game.

“NDNU is pretty darn good and we thought that coming in,” said head coach Russ Pennell. “They have added some athleticism and have some older kids. I thought we showed maturity in that as the game got closer, we made plays. That I think is the difference in our team this year. We have some older guys – the young guys came in and gave us a lift – but the veteran guys closed the deal. I’m ecstatic about the win tonight.”

Grand Canyon used a 10-0 run to close out the first half to take a 41-33 lead. The Antelopes hit six of their season-best eight 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes.

GCU opened a 51-41 lead seven minutes into the second half, before seeing the Argonauts close the lead to one with four minutes remaining.

Blake Davis led GCU tonight, scoring 12 points on 4-for-7 shooting, with nine rebounds. Speed was the team’s high scorer with 15 points.

Jerome Garrison added a season-best 12 points off the bench in his first PacWest Conference game.

“A game like this gives me a lot of confidence that I can play at this level,” said Garrison. “I know I will have to bring this effort every night. There was a lot more talking out there tonight and you could feel the intensity. The rebounds were harder, driving to the hole harder. We did well as a team and are looking forward to the next one.”

Pickrel finished the game with nine points and nine rebounds, as well as a career-high four blocked shots.

GCU handled the ball well this evening, turning the ball over only eight times after averaging 15.5 in their first four games.

Grand Canyon’s next four games will wrap up their non-conference portion of their schedule. They will start that stretch on Dec. 10, when they host Northern New Mexico at 6 p.m. at GCU Arena.

“I will be looking for some consistency,” added Pennell. “That we can do the right thing the majority of the times. We had some defensive breakdowns tonight that I wasn’t very happy with. Things I haven’t seen us do. I’m hoping in these last four games that we can find ourselves and be fine-tuned as we get into the rest of the conference season.”

GCU 76 NDNU 66