GCU unable to recover from tough first quarter

Thursday, January 7

Edinburg, Texas

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

8-9, 0-1WAC

UT Rio Grande Valley

9-7, 1-0WAC

Grand Canyon

UT Rio Grande Valley

Photo by: Darryl Webb

1/7/2016 8:19:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Lopes' 28 points not enough in WAC opener

By: Steven Gonzalez

EDINBURG, Texas – The Grand Canyon women's basketball team kicked off its Western Athletic Conference schedule on the road with a matchup against UT Rio Grande Valley. The Lopes were unable to recover from a large first-half deficit as they dropped the WAC opener to the Vaqueros, 52-28.

"Well that is a first for us. I have not really been a part of something like that where a team was poor offensively for 40 minutes," head coach Trent May said. "There are times when you can say we didn't shoot the ball well, but this was an anomaly. I've never seen anything like it."

The Lopes had to play catch up early in the game as UTRGV jumped out to an early 11-0 lead. The Vaqueros were led by Bernesha Peters with 12 points in the first quarter. The blistering first quarter didn't stop there, however, as the home team ended the opening quarter with a 25-4 lead.

GCU was able to cool down the Vaqueros as the game wore on, holding UTRGV to 27 points through the final three quarters – just two more points than they had in the first quarter alone.

"We held their best players to two points each and gave up 52 which should be a win most every time," May said. "I have to give them credit because they did what they needed to do to get the win."

Cheyenne Hedrington recorded 14 rebounds, marking her third game this season with 10 or more rebounds. Dana Jones also was busy on the glass, pulling in 9 rebounds for GCU. It was her fourth game this season with 9 or more rebounds. Courtney Hayes continued distributing the ball well for the Lopes, finishing with 5 assists for the fifth time in the last six games.

"This is a 'take the game video and go skeet shooting' night," May said. "We need to learn from this and move on and that is exactly what we will do."

The Lopes continue their WAC-opening roadtrip this Saturday, Jan. 9, against the defending WAC champions, New Mexico State. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m Arizona time.