Lopes take down Roos in front of record crowd

Saturday, February 25

Phoenix, Ariz.

7:00 P.M.

Grand Canyon

21-9, 10-3WAC

Missouri-Kansas City

15-15, 7-6WAC

UMKC

Grand Canyon

2/25/2017 9:52:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Charles Hampton

The Grand Canyon men's basketball team sent their two seniors out in style with a 84-77 win over UMKC in the final regular season home game on Saturday night. The 7,502 attending the game made for the largest attendance in GCU Arena history.

"It has a lot to do with the crowd," head coach Dan Majerle said after the game. "We had a record tonight. 7,500 is unbelievable. They just keep coming. The Havocs have been great, the whole crowds been great. We really have something special here and hopefully we can keep it rolling. Next year is going to be even more exciting."

Joshua Braun led all scorers with 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field, including 5-of-9 from behind the arc. Russell added 19 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds in his final regular season game in front of the Havocs.

"We battled and we won in front of a great crowd," Majerle said. "A great job. Josh is unbelievable. An unbelievable win in a good season so far. We've got one more."

It was an offensive shootout in the first half right from the start as Oscar Frayer got the Lopes started with the first five points of the contest. With the Lopes up four points, Braun took a pass at the top of the key and drilled a 3-pointer while drawing the foul. He would knock down the free throw to complete the rare 4-point play.

While both teams shot over 50 percent from the field for the half, GCU was able to get out to a double-digit lead thanks to 7 offensive rebounds which led to 9 second chance points, while limiting the Roos to no second chance points. The Lopes took a 44-34 lead into the locker room at halftime

Coming off his record-setting nine 3-point performance against Chicago State, Braun hit three more treys in the first half, leading all scorers with 16 points at intermission. Russell was active in all aspects of the game, adding 10 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in the first 20 minutes of play.

After each team hit layups to start the second half, the Roos then went on an 8-0 to cut the lead to two, 46-44, but Russell answered back with a drive down the lane for a contested layup while drawing the foul. Russell would hit the free throw to push the lead back to five with 15:45 left in the contest.

GCU would push the lead back to 10 with 3-pointers from Russell and Braun on consecutive possessions. A few possessions later, Frayer would come off a screen to hit another 3-poniter at the top of the key to push the lead to 11 with just under 10 minutes to play.

Every time the Roos looked to put together a run to get back into the game, the Lopes would answer right back. After LaVell Boyd hit a triple in the corner to cut the GCU lead back within eight, Gerard Martin took an outlet from Russell and raced down for a layup, giving the Lopes a 79-69 lead with 3:54 in the game.

After a pair of free throws from Boyd, the UMKC defense go a stop and Boyd found Broderick Robinson in the corner for a 3-pointer that cut the GCU lead to five. The Lopes went to the WAC Preseason Player of the Year in the post where he drew the foul. Braun hit both free throws to extend the lead back to seven.

The Roos would not go away as Kyle Steward hit another triple as UMKC pulled within four. A pair of Frayer free throws put the Lopes up 83-77 with a minute to play. On the ensuing possession, Russell drew a charge on Boyd to give GCU the ball back with 48 seconds remaining in regulation.

UMKC was forced to foul Russell who hit 1-of-2 free throws to seal the seven point victory.

The Lopes shot 52 percent from the field, while allowing the Roos to shoot 56 percent from the field. GCU controlled the paint, outscoring UMKC 40-29 inside while outrebounding the Roos 34-31. GCU continued their struggles from the free throw line, hitting only 13-of-22 attempts. UMKC had even more trouble, hitting 5-of-14 from the charity stripe.

Frayer would finish with 14 points and 7 rebounds in 34 minutes of action. The freshman from Oakland, Calif., shot 4-of-7 from the field with two 3-pointers and 3 assists.

"I thought Oscar did a great job in the second half of starting to crash the boards," Majerle said. "We had talked earlier of finding his game, and that's his game, crashing the boards offensively, defensively, use his athleticism and the other stuff will come. He did a great job of doing that."

GCU will close out the regular season on the road as they travel to Bakersfield, Calif., next weekend to take on conference front-runner CSU Bakersfield at the Icardo Center on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. MT. The game will air on Cox 7 Arizona and will be broadcasted on FOX Sports 910 AM.