Turnovers and shooting woes plague Lopes

Thursday, February 4

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

12-12

New Mexico State

19-3

NMSU

Grand Canyon

2/4/2016 9:57:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Imani Suber

PHOENIX, Ariz. - The GCU women's basketball team lost to the New Mexico State Aggies, 64-44 on Thursday, Feb. 4 at GCU Arena. The Lopes fall to 12-12 on the season, and 4-4 in the Western Athletic Conference.

Defensive woes and turnovers plagued the Lopes as they amounted 19 turnovers and shot 41.1% from the field in their, 64-44 fall to New Mexico State.

"I've got to give them the credit. They're definitely well coached, they do what they do and they're really good at it," head coach Trent May said. "A lot of athleticism and a team like this you've got to do the little things well, we stressed that from day one and against New Mexico State you've got to be really disciplined just make the simple baskets. We've just got to do a better job of coaching the fundamentals."

In the first half, the Aggies implemented a strong defensive effort that halted GCU's scoring effort and caused 12 turnovers that out the Lopes down 11 heading into the half.

The Lopes came out the half blazing, mounting a 6-0 run in a late third quarter rally to cut the deficit to nine (41-32) as Cheyenne Hedrington flew in for a layup off of a Courtney Hayes' forced turnover. Grand Canyon closed out the quarter on an upswing, but couldn't capitalize on their momentum heading into the fourth. In the fourth quarter, the Aggies full court press was relentless as they continued to rattle GCU's offensive stand holding the Lopes to just 12 points to close out the contest.

Jessica Gajewski led the Lopes in scoring with 10 points and shot 40 percent from three-point range. Zelor Massaquoi led GCU with seven rebounds and Courtney Hayes followed suite with a team leading four assists. Grand Canyon showed improvement on the free throw line as they went 8-of-10 and shot 80% on the night.

"The attention to detail and the concentrated effort has been there for the free throws, we just need to carry it over to the other many facets of the game," May explained.

The Lopes return to GCU Arena Saturday, Feb 4 at 7 pm and will face off against UT Rio Grande Valley. The Vaqueros are 13-2 overall and 5-2 in WAC play.