'O' meets 'D' to take WAC opener

Saturday, January 6

Seattle, Wash.

8 p.m.

Grand Canyon

11-5, 1-0WAC

Seattle U

11-7, 0-1WAC

Grand Canyon

Seattle University

1/6/2018 11:27:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score

Lopes win 73-57 at Seattle with late 14-0 run

By: <a href="http://gculopes.com/index.aspx?path=coro">Paul Coro</a>

SEATTLE – Nothing that Grand Canyon's defense did to Seattle on Saturday night was out of character.

The Lopes have been stingy most of the season so coming within eight seconds of shutting out the Western Athletic Conference's leading offense for nearly the final seven minutes of the game was more of the same.

Denying the WAC's top 3-point shooting team a 3 is what the Lopes do and making the WAC Player of the Week miss eight of nine shots was just part of how GCU beat Seattle 73-57 for a conference-opening win at KeyArena.

What pulled the Lopes away to their eighth consecutive WAC win was an offense that flipped in the middle of the game. GCU went from 11 first-half turnovers to one in the second half and 36.0 percent first-half shooting to 51.7 percent second-half shooting.

The Lopes (11-5) wore down the Redhawks (11-7), who had been 10-1 at home until GCU closed them out with a 14-0 run that was broken up by a throwaway Seattle score at the finish.

"It was everything," Lopes head coach Dan Majerle said. "Rebounding the ball. Defensively, we were good. Guys played intelligent on offense. We didn't foul, which is huge because they're a great foul-shooting team. And we stayed home on the 3s."

Seattle scored 24.5 points below its average and only one of its five double-digit scorers reached double digits Saturday. Frayer led the job on Matej Kavas, crowding the 50 percent 3-point shooter who was averaging 17.8 points per game. Last season's WAC Freshman of the Year finished with six points and did not make any of his five 3-point tries as the Lopes made him dribble rather than spot up.

Frayer was the better sophomore, scoring 14 of his team-high 18 points in the second half and sharing the team rebounding lead with seven.

"We need other guys to step up and Oscar's got the talent to do it," Majerle said. "He works really hard. If he starts making that (perimeter) shot, he's going to be hard to guard."

Frayer had not scored in the game until he gave GCU momentum just before halftime with an alleyop dunk from Matt Jackson and a tip-in score. The Lopes grabbed a 31-29 halftime lead and never let go of the advantage once Frayer opened the second half with a 3-pointer.

"I was going off what the defense was giving me and being confident in my abilities," said Frayer, who was one point off his career high. "We work on the same shots every day. It's repetition and then you go out there and make shots."

The Lopes gave themselves a better chance by turning around their ball care. They almost did not make a turnover for the first 16 minutes of the second half and that sole second-half turnover only came because they did not have the possession arrow on a tie-up.

Seattle was last challenging at 59-55 with 6:55 to go but missed its next eight shots with four turnovers in that scoreless stretch of more than six minutes. The Lopes entered the game tied for 11th in the nation for scoring defense and dropped the average to 61.1 points allowed per game.

"Any road win in the WAC is a huge win but the way we played defense that second half, that's a big win," GCU junior forward Gerard Martin said. "We needed that for sure. We all sort of took it to heart. Coach Majerle challenged us to play good one-on-one defense. We locked in defensively."

The Lopes have a marquee matchup ahead with New Mexico State (13-3) visiting GCU Arena on Thursday night but did not get ahead of themselves. The first half was a grind because of the Lopes' early sloppiness but the defense was consistently good from the start, when Seattle missed eight of its first nine shots.

"Our guys really welled up, moved their feet and made them take tough shots," Majerle said.

Redhawks senior guard Jordan Hill hurt GCU with 26 points but he was a solo act. Seattle center Aaron Menzies, a 66 percent shooter from the field, missed all four of his shots before fouling out. Josh Hearlihy, averaging 13.4 points, was one for nine with four turnovers. Kavas went three for 11 with turnovers.

While Menizies struggled, Lopes freshman center Alessandro Lever was part of what got GCU off to a better offensive rhythm in the second half. He scored seven of the first 17 points before Seattle went to a smaller lineup. Guard Shaq Carr and Joshua Braun each added 10 points on a night in which "Lopes on the Road" drew hundreds of GCU fans to KeyArena.

"I'm just proud of our guys," Majerle said. "I was worried about this game."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.