Lopes' win streak snapped at 12 games

Saturday, January 30

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

19-3,6-1

Seattle U

10-11,4-3

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Darryl Webb

1/30/2016 9:39:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Josh Hauser

PHOENIX – After shooting 6-for-24 in the second half, Grand Canyon lost its first Western Athletic Conference game of the year and saw its 12-game winning streak snapped at the hands of Seattle U on Saturday night at GCU Arena.

"Extremely disappointing," head coach Dan Majerle said following the game. "Probably our worst game, the way we played. Couldn't make a shot. We let them battle back into it."

Grand Canyon fell to 19-3 on the season and 6-1 in WAC play, while the Redhawks improved to 10-11 and 4-3 in WAC play.

After the Lopes took a seven-point lead into the half, Seattle U led by as many as six points down the stretch. Joshua Braun nailed a three-point shot to tie the game at 57 with 1:38 to play. Both teams went scoreless until the final seconds, when a tip-in basket by Emmanuel Chibuogwu with six seconds left put the Redhawks in front 59-57. A desperation three-point attempt as time expired rimmed out for DeWayne Russell. It was the Lopes first loss since Dec. 13, snapping what was tied for the nation's longest active winning streak.

Grand Canyon held a double-digit lead for large portions of the first half, as late as the 1:58 mark, when the lead was 33-23. Grandy Glaze put together another solid effort in the first half, finishing the first 20 minutes with 12 points and seven boards. The Lopes were able to break down the Seattle U zone defense, scoring 22 points in the paint in the first half alone.

The Redhawks' second-half defense limited Grand Canyon to 22 points, a season-low scoring output in the second half. In a span of six minutes down the final stretch, GCU committed five turnovers, allowing Seattle U to score seven points off of turnovers in the half. Grand Canyon connected on just 6-of-23 attempts from distance while being held to just seven free throw attempts.

"We came out in the second half and couldn't make a shot," Majerle said. "We are a good shooting team and we couldn't make threes, couldn't finish layups. We gambled too much on defense."

Braun (17 points) and Glaze (16 points) led the GCU scoring charge with Glaze also collecting 12 rebounds to log his seventh double-double of the season.

Following the loss, Grand Canyon falls into a first-place tie with New Mexico State in the Western Athletic Conference standings. The Lopes and the Aggies square off in Las Cruces, N.M. next Thursday in a matchup between two squads sporting 6-1 records in WAC play.

"Now we are going to bounce back," Majerle said. "We are going to New Mexico State which is obviously going to be a very tough game. It's a team that is going to want to take care of us."

Tip-off from the Pan American Center is set for 7:00 p.m. MT and is available on KXXT 1010 AM. The Lopes then travel to Edinburg, Texas for a Saturday tilt versus UT Rio Grande Valley.