Lopes head to Coastal Carolina for CIT quarterfinal

The Grand Canyon men's basketball team hits the road to Conway, S.C. as the Lopes will take on the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) on Wed., March 23, 2016. Tip-off from the HTC Center is scheduled for 4 p.m. MST. It will be the first Division I postseason game the Lopes have played away from GCU campus.

"I love it," head coach Dan Majerle said following his team's 64-54 win over Jackson State on Thursday night. "I told our guys, I'm not sure where your guys' heads at as far as our team but I love it because I'm a competitor and they showed me tonight they are competitors too. To be 18-2 at home and be able to go on the road -- I'm excited to go on the road. Competition is going to continue to get tougher and tougher so, three more games and we just want to keep the season alive because it's been so much fun and I think our guys are starting to feel that a little bit."

Coastal Carolina enters Wednesday's game following a 71-62 win over New Hampshire on Saturday. In advancing to the quarterfinals, the Chanticleers picked up their first two officially recognized postseason wins in program history. Badou Diagne led Coastal with 19 points and 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season while Elijah Wilson also added 19 second-half points in the win. Wilson has led the Chanticleers in scoring this season, averaging 13.9 points per game.

The Lopes got off to a slow start in their second round matchup with Jackson State, as the Tigers slowed down the pace of play in the first half and took a six-point lead into halftime. GCU's 21 points in the first half were its second-lowest of the season as they shot only 33.3 percent from the field and were 1-of-6 from 3-point range. Implementing a rare defensive press to start the second half, Majerle's Lopes picked up the pace of play and quickly regained control of the game with a 6-0 run to start the second half.

"I was so pleased the second half," Majerle added. "That team came out and really slowed the ball down and we struggled with it. We came out in the second half and put a press in that we never practice because we're not a pressing team. Our guys just played with a lot of heart and competitiveness and just got after it. I couldn't be more proud of them.

Joshua Braun scored a game-high 18 points while going a perfect 10-for-10 from the free thrown line. The Lopes as a team shot 90.5 percent from the charity stripe, a drastic improvement over their 47.1 percent team performance from the line in their first round game against South Carolina State. Grandy Glaze just missed his 14th double-double of the season as he scored 8 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Matt Jackson had his second straight game scoring in double-figures off the bench, adding 10 points in 23 minutes of action.

Despite this being the first-ever matchup between the two schools, Uros Ljeskovic is very familiar with Coastal as he joined the Lopes as a graduate transfer last summer after playing three seasons with the Chanticleers. Ljeskovic saw action in 66 games, averaging 3.0 points and 2.8 rebounds while averaging 12.1 minutes per game in Conway. In his sophomore and junior seasons, Ljeskovic was part of two Coastal teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament, before they eventually fell in the first round to Virginia in 2014 and Wisconsin in 2015.

The winner of Wednesday's quarterfinal game advances to the semifinals of the CIT and will play on Sun., March 27. Both the semifinal and championship rounds of the tournament will be broadcasted on CBS Sports Network.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Joshua Braun

Grandy Glaze

Matt Jackson

Uros Ljeskovic

Grand Canyon University Athletics