Team effort leads GCU to thrilling win at Southern Utah

Friday, December 16

Cedar City, UT

6:30 P.M.

Grand Canyon

Southern Utah

Grand Canyon

Southern Utah

Team effort leads GCU to thrilling win at Southern Utah

12/16/2016 10:07:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Imani Suber

CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The Grand Canyon women's basketball program secured its third-straight win Friday night as they defeated Southern Utah 76-73 in a late game thriller in Centrum Arena. The Lopes improve to 6-4 on the season.

Zelor Massaquoi led the squad with 21 points a career best. Massaquoi also picked up a team-leading 11 rebounds en route to her first double double of the season. Casey Rarrick was second with 18 points, while Jessica Gajewski had an 11 point outing and Laura Marcos-Canedo added ten to the tally. Aniya Baker led the Lopes with six rebounds.

How It happened
In an aggressive and intense contest from tip-off, GCU and the Thunderbirds started off hot. The T-Birds, took the early lead, but Massaquoi responded opening up the scoring for the Lopes with a layup. Rarrick followed shortly after with a trey and Massaquoi struck again to give GCU the 8-7 advantage early. Throughout the rest of the quarter, GCU was in an offensive and defensive flow as they held SUU from scoring for 2:33 minutes to hold a 21-16 lead at the end of the first.

The tables turned in the second quarter, as the T-Birds offense began to gel as they shot 48 percent from the field going 13-for-27 to outscore the Lopes 20-14. Although GCU remained scoreless for over two minutes in the second, the Lopes continued to fight. SUU hit the go-ahead trey with 1:29 left on the clock and while Rarrick hit her own triple, the T-Birds finished with a last second layup to end the half with a 36-35 lead.

The second half started just as gritty as the first as Massaquoi bulldozed through T-Bird defenders to snatch back the lead at 37-36. SUU then put together a 7-0 run to extend its lead to 42-37, the largest lead they would achieve before the Lopes struck back. GCU stayed vigilant keeping the score within four throughout the quarter. Baker hit a jumper in the last minutes to get the Lopes back within two at 54-52, but SUU followed with a jumper at the buzzer to leave the third at 56-52.

It all came down to the final frame as contributions from each Lope made the difference as five different players made field goals throughout the quarter matched with a stifling defense that converted five SUU turnovers into five points.

The T-Birds opened the final frame aggressive draining a 3-pointer to extend its lead, GCU then engineered a 7-0 run followed by Baker's go-ahead jumper to claim back the lead at 60-59. The T-Birds hit its own trey to move back ahead, but a Marcos-Canedo jumper put the Lopes back in it. GCU remained steadfast as Kiara Clark secured the up and under to put the Lopes up by one at 66-65.

With 1:15 left, the T-Bird's tied the game up at 70-70. The Lopes would go cold for a little over a minute before Massaquoi was sent to the charity stripe, knocking down a pair of crucial free throws to put the Lopes up 72-70 at the 57 second mark. With the T-Birds in possession, Massaquoi heroically pulled down the final board drawing a foul in the process. She knocked down two more free throws to give GCU a four point lead at 74-70 with 11 seconds on the clock. While GCU seemed to have the game under control, SUU drained a triple with 8 seconds left to keep the Lopes on their heels. But a pair of Rarrick free throws sealed the deal as they edged out the Thunderbirds in a 76-73 outcome.

Lopes Quotes
Head Coach Trent May
On the team's performance
"I'm super proud of everybody who was involved tonight. There's so many good things that happened for so many good people, the biggest common dominator in all of that is that everybody really stayed together. There were different lineups, different rotations, a lot of different scenarios that we had to navigate through tonight and the girls did it without wavering and blinking. Really a gutsy performance and all out just a great team effort tonight. I'm really proud of the players, proud of the staff and I'm really proud that everyone really stayed together and really fought, we really did. We fought and pulled out a win with different personnel and to see them do that is a huge thing. It's just another thing we can put in our memory bank and draw from later."

On the team's play in the fourth quarter
"The biggest thing was to just stay positive. It's just the girls have it in them and fortunately the right plays were called at the right time and for the right people and they were able execute and get back in the game and even the score. We hit big free throws down the stretch, Zelor (Massaquoi) went 4-for-4 down the stretch and that was huge and every one of them was important, Casey (Rarrick) sealing it with two. And just the bench Kiara Clark coming in and playing really good minutes, good defense and just sound positioning on the defensive end that really gave us a good spark that we really needed."

Lopes Notes

The Lopes scored eight triples in one half for the first time this season. GCU went 8-for-17 in the first half shooting 47.1 percent from long range. They also tied a team high with 12 3-pointers on the night.
Zelor Massaquoi collected her first double figure performance with 21 points and earned her first double double of the season with 11 boards.
Massaquoi also set a career high in points (21), field goals (7) and field goal attempts (11). She also tied a personal best with 11 boards. She collected a season high with 35 minutes on the night.
Massaquoi led the Lopes in rebounds for the fourth time this season.
GCU now has seven double doubles on the year and has registered one in three of the last four contests.
Casey Rarrick produced her fourth double figure outing of the year with 18 points. She went 4-of-7 from long range.
Laura Marcos-Canedo produced her second double digit outing of the season with 10 points, she was also 2-for-2 from long range and perfect from the free throw line (2-of-2)
For the sixth time this season Aniya Baker led the Lopes in steals (6) tying a season high in the category.

Up Next:
The Lopes return to GCU Arena for their final home game of 2016 as they welcome in-state foe Northern Arizona to Phoenix on Monday, Dec. 19. Tip-off is set for 12:00 p.m. MST.