Lopes fall to Coastal in CIT heartbreaker

Wednesday, March 23

Conway, S.C.

4 P.M.

Grand Canyon

27-7

Coastal Carolina

21-11

Grand Canyon

Coastal Carolina

Photo by: Darryl Webb

3/24/2016 1:49:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Charles Hampton

The Grand Canyon men's basketball team fell in a last second 60-58 heartbreaking loss to Coastal Carolina in the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament at the HTC Center in Conway, S.C. on Wednesday night. The Lopes conclude the 2015-16 season with a 27-7 record, 10 more wins than a season ago.

Coastal's Elijah Wilson banked in a layup with 2.2 seconds remaining to give the Chanticleers the two-point advantage. After the Lopes' inbound pass was knocked out of bounds by Coastal, Ryan Majerle just missed on a potential game-winning three as time expired.

"I thought our guys battled," head coach Dan Majerle said after the game. "Just one of those nights where you shoot 5-for-26 from three (point range) and 5-for-11 from the free throw line. We just couldn't get it done tonight, but we battled. We found a way to hang in there even not playing very well.

Grandy Glaze picked up his 14^th double-double of the season, leading the Lopes with 16 points and 13 rebounds in 33 minutes of action. Gerard Martin scored 11 second-half points and DeWayne Russell finished with 10 points and a team-best four assists as the GCU finished with three players scoring in double-figures.

"Grandy, if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have even come close to 27 wins," Majerle said of his graduate transfer from Saint Louis. "He was a really good player for us all year long."

Despite getting out to a quick 6-0 lead to start the game, the Lopes first-half shooting woes reared its ugly head as they went scoreless for the next five minutes and let the Chanticleers go on an 11-0 run to go up by five. The Lopes missed their first nine 3-point attempts until Dominic Magee came off the bench and knocked one down with 3:32 remaining in the half. Both teams shot just 36 percent from the field in the half, well below each team's seasonal average.

The Lopes were 1-of-12 from behind the arc in the first half, while Coastal went 4-for-10. Where the Lopes lacked in outside shooting, they made up for in the interior, outscoring the Chanticleers 20-6 in the paint, thanks largely to Glaze's 10 points inside.

The second half started off with both teams trading baskets for the first 10 minutes. The Lopes took a 45-42 lead with 9:27 left after Martin hit his third 3-pointer in the second half in as many attempts. From there, the game turned to a series of runs for each team. Coastal took a 52-47 lead after a 10-2 run. GCU was able to answer right back over the next 2:18 with an 11-0 run including two driving layups from Glaze and a huge 3-pointer from Majerle.

Grand Canyon led 58-52 with 2:23 remaining, but they would not score again as the Chanticleers scored the game's final eight points to advance to the CIT semifinals on Sunday.

For the game, the Lopes shot 35.7 percent from the field and 19.2 percent from 3-point range. They struggled from the free throw line once again, shooting only 27.3 percent for the game, after making 19-of-21 in their second round win over Jackson State. The Lopes committed only six turnovers, their second-lowest total of the season.

"I'm very proud of our guys," Majerle added. "I challenged them all year and I say this all the time, by no means is what we do easy. We push these guys extremely hard. We demand a lot from them every day. They just keep bouncing back and bouncing back. They did it this year. We had a great group of guys."

As the Lopes move into their fourth year of the four-year transition process to Division I in 2016-17, they will be graduating five from this year's roster.

"I want to thank Uros (Ljeskovic), Grant (White), Grandy, Ryan, and Jevon (Estelle)," Majerle concluded. "Our five seniors—guys who have been here and have really propelled our program."