Completed Event: Men's Basketball at Wyoming on December 20, 2025 , Win , 82, to, 70
M Basketball
at Wyoming
W 82-70
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Tuesday, January 23
Phoenix, Ariz.
7 p.m.
Grand Canyon
15-6
96
vs
80
William Jessup
15-6
1
2
F
William Jessup
43
37
80
Grand Canyon
46
50
96
Offense awes, defense disappoints in win
1/23/2018 10:34:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
Lopes need Division I-era offensive records to prevail
Lopes win.
That is not enough any longer.
Even on a night when Grand Canyon set Division I-era records for shooting and assists, the Lopes left much more to be desired than Tuesday night's victorious 96-80 final score against William Jessup might suggest.
The Sacramento-area NAIA visitor was supposed to enable the Lopes to keep their rhythm going amid a break in Western Athletic Conference play. GCU (14-6) did not meet its standards for play but did extend its winning streak to four and continued offensive improvement with 65.4 percent shooting and assists on 29 of 34 field goals.
But what has been a statistically elite Division I defense did not bring the same intensity for William Jessup (15-6), which shot 50 percent for the first half until a buzzer heave miss and only made nine turnovers in the loss to the Lopes.
GCU's offense needed to have one of its best nights of the season to win by 16 after leading by only three points at halftime. It took freshman center Alessandro Lever's third consecutive 20-plus scoring game, senior point guard Casey Benson's career-high 10 assists and senior guard Joshua Braun's 22 points to make up for the Lopes' defensive lapses.
"I guess we took the night off from playing defense," GCU head coach Dan Majerle said. "Very disappointing. We talked about it before the game – how we were ranked nationally defensively, how good we've played defensively. This was a chance to take a step forward and keep the momentum. We took four steps backward tonight."
The Lopes had one of its best 3-point shooting nights of the season, taking a 15-point lead in less than 10 minutes and making seven of their first 11 3-point tries. Too often, the Lopes were trading baskets with the Warriors and the offense cooled with one field goal in the first half's last 6 ½ minutes.
The Lopes only led 46-43 at halftime but still never trailed in the game. They improved slightly on defense in the second half but it was the offense's fourth consecutive game of more than 80 points and third consecutive game of shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
Benson recorded his first career double-double, as his 10 assists came without a turnover in 30 minutes. Benson has 25 assists with one turnover over the past three games.
A frequent beneficiary has been Lever, who has become the offense's focal point in a tweak to look into the 6-foot-10 Italian on the post more. Lever has made 69 percent of his shots and averaged 25.7 points in the past three games. He previously was averaging 6.4 points per game.
"I feel more confident in offense the last three games," said Lever, who faced more size Tuesday than he did on the road trip. "You can see I score more and feel more comfortable in the offense. But now maybe I need to play better defense.
"We didn't play defense. Maybe we just thought the game was easy to win. They beat us every time to score."
The Lopes entered Thursday ranked first in the nation for 3-point defense and in the top 15 for scoring defense, opponent field goal percentage and opponent turnovers but William Jessup made more field goals (30) than any GCU opponent this season.
The Warriors scored 32 points in the paint with most of them coming on dribble drives.
"Defensively, we will get in a shell (in practice and) we will do everything perfectly," Majerle said. "Everyone will be in the right spot. We will be good. When the ball goes up, it is all out the window. We will work on it again for the next three to four days but I don't know what's going to happen Saturday (at Utah Valley). If we play like this, Utah Valley is a really good scoring team. They will score 130. We have been really good defensively all year so it shouldn't happen again.
"Good teams don't take nights off like these guys did. You have struggles on offense. We've always had struggles on offense but you can play defense hard every night. I think it starts with our senior leaders and right now they are not very good."
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
That is not enough any longer.
Even on a night when Grand Canyon set Division I-era records for shooting and assists, the Lopes left much more to be desired than Tuesday night's victorious 96-80 final score against William Jessup might suggest.
The Sacramento-area NAIA visitor was supposed to enable the Lopes to keep their rhythm going amid a break in Western Athletic Conference play. GCU (14-6) did not meet its standards for play but did extend its winning streak to four and continued offensive improvement with 65.4 percent shooting and assists on 29 of 34 field goals.
But what has been a statistically elite Division I defense did not bring the same intensity for William Jessup (15-6), which shot 50 percent for the first half until a buzzer heave miss and only made nine turnovers in the loss to the Lopes.
GCU's offense needed to have one of its best nights of the season to win by 16 after leading by only three points at halftime. It took freshman center Alessandro Lever's third consecutive 20-plus scoring game, senior point guard Casey Benson's career-high 10 assists and senior guard Joshua Braun's 22 points to make up for the Lopes' defensive lapses.
"I guess we took the night off from playing defense," GCU head coach Dan Majerle said. "Very disappointing. We talked about it before the game – how we were ranked nationally defensively, how good we've played defensively. This was a chance to take a step forward and keep the momentum. We took four steps backward tonight."
The Lopes had one of its best 3-point shooting nights of the season, taking a 15-point lead in less than 10 minutes and making seven of their first 11 3-point tries. Too often, the Lopes were trading baskets with the Warriors and the offense cooled with one field goal in the first half's last 6 ½ minutes.
The Lopes only led 46-43 at halftime but still never trailed in the game. They improved slightly on defense in the second half but it was the offense's fourth consecutive game of more than 80 points and third consecutive game of shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
Benson recorded his first career double-double, as his 10 assists came without a turnover in 30 minutes. Benson has 25 assists with one turnover over the past three games.
A frequent beneficiary has been Lever, who has become the offense's focal point in a tweak to look into the 6-foot-10 Italian on the post more. Lever has made 69 percent of his shots and averaged 25.7 points in the past three games. He previously was averaging 6.4 points per game.
"I feel more confident in offense the last three games," said Lever, who faced more size Tuesday than he did on the road trip. "You can see I score more and feel more comfortable in the offense. But now maybe I need to play better defense.
"We didn't play defense. Maybe we just thought the game was easy to win. They beat us every time to score."
The Lopes entered Thursday ranked first in the nation for 3-point defense and in the top 15 for scoring defense, opponent field goal percentage and opponent turnovers but William Jessup made more field goals (30) than any GCU opponent this season.
The Warriors scored 32 points in the paint with most of them coming on dribble drives.
"Defensively, we will get in a shell (in practice and) we will do everything perfectly," Majerle said. "Everyone will be in the right spot. We will be good. When the ball goes up, it is all out the window. We will work on it again for the next three to four days but I don't know what's going to happen Saturday (at Utah Valley). If we play like this, Utah Valley is a really good scoring team. They will score 130. We have been really good defensively all year so it shouldn't happen again.
"Good teams don't take nights off like these guys did. You have struggles on offense. We've always had struggles on offense but you can play defense hard every night. I think it starts with our senior leaders and right now they are not very good."
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
Team Stats
WJU
GCU
FG%
.448
.654
3FG%
.350
.526
FT%
.929
.692
RB
28
32
TO
9
12
STL
8
5
Game Leaders
Pts
25
FGM
10
3FGM
0
FTM
5
Pts
22
FGM
7
3FGM
4
FTM
4
Pts
12
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
3
Pts
10
FGM
4
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
G
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