Mobley, Lopes down Cougars

Thursday, January 18

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 P.M.

Grand Canyon

9-9, 3-1

Chicago State

0-19, 0-4

Chicago State

Grand Canyon

1/18/2018 9:04:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

GCU wins third conference test

By: Sarah Woodward

PHOENIX, Ariz. – With her sixth double-double of the year, senior Brie Mobley guided the Grand Canyon women's basketball team to its seventh win in the last eight games, as the Lopes (9-9, 3-1 WAC) downed Chicago State (0-19, 0-4 WAC), 64-36, on Thursday night at the GCU Arena.

Mobley tallied her 16th double-digit performance of the season with 25 points on the night, paired with a game-high 10 rebounds and an assist. The guard has now led the Lopes in scoring in 11 games, including all four Western Athletic Conference contests.

"She was just terrific," head coach Nicole Powell said. "What she did today is what she's been doing for us all season. It's not surprise to us that she came out very focused, had a great start, and led our team."

Fellow senior Jessica Gajewski was also in double-digits with 11 points and two assists, while senior August Touchard had 10 points, a game-high six assists and five boards on the night.

The Lopes, headlined by 14 points and seven boards from Mobley, had a six-point, 22-16 lead heading to the locker room at half time. The second half opened up to a lead as large as 29 points, and the final 28-point gap.

"I thought we did a really good job defensively, keeping them to single digit points in the first and second quarter," Powell said. "We didn't make a whole lot of adjustments (in the second half), we just picked up our tempo and tried to play more aggressive."

GCU was aggressive coming out of the halftime break, as the Lopes outscored the Cougars, 21-7. The fourth quarter (21-13) was the only period in which CSU tallied double-digit scoring numbers.

Junior ShaRon Miller added seven points and four rebounds for the Lopes, while fellow junior Kavita Akula had six points from a pair of 3-pointers.

The Lopes return home on Saturday to host Kansas City in a 2 p.m. (MT) contest, as the game will honor the Special Olympics. Admission to all GCU women's basketball games is free of charge.