Lopes show grit, fall to No. 1 Duke

Saturday, November 12

Durham, N.C.

3:30 P.M.

Grand Canyon

0-1

Duke

2-0

Grand Canyon

Duke

11/12/2016 9:37:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Charles Hampton

The Grand Canyon men's basketball team tipped off the 2016-17 regular season with a 96-61 loss at No. 1 Duke at Camden Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C. on Saturday night.

"To be honest, I didn't know what to expect," head coach Dan Majerle said after the game. "I was happy with the way we started off. We played well. I thought we played hard and did a good job. For our first game, obviously I'm not happy with the result, we kind of lost it there. But I thought maybe the first 12 or 13 minutes we played really good."

In his very first game with the team, Shaq Carr led the Lopes with 18 points and 8 assists in 38 minutes of action. Carr was one of three GCU players to score in double figures. Keonta Vernon added 11 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals and Gerard Martin finished with 10 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals.

"I knew he was a real good passer with quickness and a good athlete," Majerle said of Carr. "He has to learn to finish a little bit better around the basket. I thought he did really well for his first game, especially filling in for a guy like DeWayne, who we missed obviously."

GCU got out to an early six-point lead, 13-7, five minutes into the first half after a jumper from freshman Oscar Frayer. The Lopes and Blue Devils traded a few baskets before Duke tied the game at 17-17 following a free throw from Grayson Allen, who had a game-high 25 points and 10 rebounds.

Late in the first half, Duke began to hit from 3-point range, going on a 16-3 run to end the first half, leading 46-29. GCU struggled to start the second half, giving up 12 consecutive points, to fall behind by 29 with just under 17 minutes to play.

"I don't think we ever did what we wanted to," Majerle said. "This is a brand new season for our team. We had two of our starters out in DeWayne Russell and Matt Jackson. Darion Clark, our five man, was hurt right before the game. I didn't even know if he was going to go. We had three guys in our starting lineup that had never played for me before. We were trying to figure each other out."
The Lopes spent most of the game in foul trouble, with the Blue Devils shooting 17 free throws before the first foul-line attempt for GCU. Carr was the first GCU player to get to the foul line, but with just 1:43 remaining in the first half.

Trailing by 29, the Lopes put together an 18-8 run to cut the lead to 68-49, with Carr scoring or assisting on 17 of the 18 points. But that would be the closest that GCU would get the rest of the way as the No. 1 team built their largest lead and final margin of victory with 55 seconds remaining in the game.

The Lopes continue play in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament as they will travel to State College, Pa. to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions on Tuesday night.