Lopes Drop 66-64 Heartbreaker to UT Arlington

Thursday, November 20

GCU Arena

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

1-2

UT Arlington

2-1

Texas Arlington

Grand Canyon

Jerome Garrison scored a season-high 23 points against UT Arlington

Photo by: Darryl Webb

11/20/2014 8:47:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Return to GCU Arena for 7 p.m. game versus Florida A&M tomorrow night

The Grand Canyon University men's basketball team (1-2) continued their four-game homestand with a tightly contested 66-64 loss to UT Arlington (2-1) tonight at GCU Arena. The Mavericks shot 53.8 percent (14-for-26) over the final 20 minutes to erase the Antelopes' four-point first-half lead.

Click here for Michael Potter's postgame interview with assistant coach Chris Crevelone.

Trailing by five, 63-58, with 2:21 to go, the Lopes mounted a late rally that had them in possession of the ball with a chance to tie or win the game. After a missed UTA free throw, GCU's Ryan Majerle grabbed the rebound and the Lopes called timeout to set up for their final play. Jerome Garrison drove to the bucket and was fouled, sending him to the line with 1.9 seconds remaning with a chance to tie to the game. Garrison missed the front-end of his two free throws and intentionally missed his second free throw. A scramble for the ball after the missed free throw did not give GCU an open look as time expired.

Garrison led GCU with a season-best 23 points on 6-for-12 shooting from the floor. Royce Woolridge scored 10 points, while Matt Jackson and Daniel Alexander led the squad with five rebounds each. As a team, GCU shot 38.2 percent (21-for-55). UTA went 21-for-55 (38.2 percent) overall in the game.

The Mavs built an early 13-7 lead after holding GCU scoreless for over five minutes in the first half. UTA built that advantage to as many as seven points before the Lopes used a 6-0 run to pull within one point, 19-18, with just over six minutes to play. A Garrison three-pointer two minutes later evened the score at 21.

GCU then used an 8-3 run to stake a 29-24 lead with 1:56 on the clock and carried a four-point advantage into the break (31-27). The Lopes shot 39.3 percent (11-for-28) while holding the Mavs to just a 24.1 percentage (7-for-29). Garrison led the squad with seven first-half points, while Jackson and Woolridge added six apiece.

UTA used a 13-7 run to take the 40-38 lead in the first five minutes of the second half and pulled ahead by seven (50-43) at the 10:10 mark. That would match their largest lead of the game.

The Mavs would not surrender the lead despite GCU cutting that advantage to just one point within the game's 10 seconds. The Lopes shot 34.6 percent from the field (9-for-26) in the second half.

The Lopes return to GCU Arena tomorrow night for a 7 p.m. matchup against Florida A&M. The game can be heard live on KXXT 1010 AM Family Values Radio (www.familyvaluesradio1010.com) or can be viewed live on Cox7 (www.cox7.com).

UTA 66, GCU 64