Lopes roll in WAC opener

Thursday, January 7

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

14-2

UT Rio Grande Valley

4-12

UTRGV

Grand Canyon

1/7/2016 9:20:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Samantha Fell

PHOENIX - The Grand Canyon men's basketball team opened play in the Western Athletic Conference with an 83-63 win over the UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros. The Antelopes improve to 14-2 on the season and are now 1-0 in the WAC. GCU extends their winning streak to seven games.

Head Coach Dan Majerle was pleased with the game. He stated "Good win. It was the first league game and you never know how it's going to go. I knew [the Vaqueros] were going to come in and play extremely hard."

The Lopes were raining threes in the first half. Joshua Braun knocked down three triples in the first six minutes and Gerard Martin made one to get GCU out to a quick 19-9 lead. Grand Canyon also hit the boards hard throughout the half as they outrebounded the Vaqueros 21-12. The Lopes pulled down seven offensive rebounds and got 10 second-chance points off their extra efforts. GCU held a 45-28 advantage going into the locker room.

After a slow start, the Lopes regained their intensity in the second half and found their touch from behind the arc. Braun continued to light it up and ended up with a career-high 6 triples for the game. He led all scorers with 20 points on the night.

Guard Dominic Magee drained two three-pointers of his own and continually drove to the bucket. Magee scored 14 points on the night and grabbed 3 rebounds. The Lopes knocked down 10 three-pointers overall, a new season high.

Grandy Glaze had another big night for GCU and notched his third double-double of the season. Glaze had 17 points and 11 boards, often creating his own shots with rebounds off missed opportunities. He made 8 of his 13 attempts and is now shooting .633 on the season.

The Lopes next game is Saturday against conference rival New Mexico State and Majerle emphasized the importance of the matchup.

Majerle said "We're going to move on and have a good practice tomorrow and we know on Saturday it's going to be a heck of a game. New Mexico State is a very good team and we haven't sniffed a win in the last two years. Were 1-0. It's a good way to start the season."

The New Mexico State game will be played on Saturday, Jan. 9 at GCU Arena at 7 p.m. All Lopes fans are encouraged to wear black clothing as GCU will be hosting a "Black Out" for the matchup.