Defense delivers in home blowout

Saturday, November 10

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Delaware State

Delaware St.

Grand Canyon

11/10/2018 10:40:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score PHOTO GALLERY

GCU outscores Delaware State 50-20 in 2nd half

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

Grand Canyon sped like a stock car in the second half Saturday night, when its horsepower changed after a halftime pit stop.

A 50-20 second half showed all the defensive motor that GCU head coach Dan Majerle desired and demanded, letting the Lopes also display their explosive potential in an 89-47 rout of Delaware State.

It marked GCU's largest margin of defeat against a Division I opponent in its D-I era and the second largest overall victory margin to a 50-point win over Division II Western New Mexico five years ago. It also marked the Lopes' 16^th consecutive win in a regular-season home opener.

Delaware State (0-2) opened the second half with a 3-pointer that cut the Lopes lead to 39-30 before GCU (1-1) scored 18 unanswered points, capped by two steal-and-scores from junior swingman Oscar Frayer and senior point guard Trey Drechsel.

"Your offense is always better if your defense is good," Majerle said. "You get steals. You get out and run. You get rebounds. It's hard to score and run off of made baskets. So if you get stops and you can get out and run, it's always easier. I thought our second group and our switching defense, they do a pretty good job at that. Protected the rim a lot better tonight, which is big. But, as I said, it's just the effort."

The Lopes held Delaware State to 27.8 percent shooting, a lower clip than any opponent shot against GCU last season. GCU shot 52 percent, a clip helped by getting 25 fastbreak points that were fueled largely by 11 Lopes steals.

For anyone who missed Drechsel's impressive Division I debut at South Dakota State, the transfer from Western Washington dazzled again on the Phoenix home floor to share the team lead in points (15 with Frayer) and rebounds (eight with senior power forward Michael Finke) while holding the outright team lead in assists (six) and steals (four).

Drechsel won over the sold-out crowd of 7,122 fans, including Boston Celtics president and former Majerle Suns teammate Danny Ainge, with an early steal and 3-point play off a breakaway layup. He did it twice more later in the game as he read passes to the wing with the reach of his 6-foot-6 frame.

"My emotions are different with the home crowd," Drechsel said. "They're more passionate like, 'Let's go, let's do this together,' On the road, I feel like I'm fighting someone. It's a different type of energy but the crowd is crazy here. There is just something about feeling like 7,000 people are riding with you."

GCU controlled the first half but made more turnovers in the first 12:18 (seven) than it did in all of Tuesday's 79-74 loss at South Dakota State (six). Repeating Tuesday's early foul trouble, Lopes sophomore center Alessandro Lever went to the bench with two fouls after the first three minutes Saturday but he bounced back with 10 second-half points to finish with 14 points in 14 minutes.

Lopes junior swingman Oscar Frayer made six of nine shots but players like him and senior reserve forward Gerard Martin exemplified the difference in defensive intensity from Tuesday's loss. Frayer blocked three shots and made a steal while Martin took two first-half charges and made three steals while scoring nine points in 13 minutes.

"He's out there and looks like he played 40 (minutes)," Majerle said of Martin. "That's how hard he plays. He's all over the place, takes charges, switches, yells, screams. He's the heart and soul of the team. He's been here for five years. We're going to miss him when he leaves because he's what I'm about. It's about playing hard, being a good teammate and he leads that second group with his intensity."

That bench intensity was marked change from Tuesday. This reserve effort included the first collegiate points from GCU freshman guard Tim Finke, who scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds. And just like Tuesday, Lopes junior guard Carlos Johnson was a tale of two halves – getting all of his 17 points Tuesday in the second half and getting all of his 13 points Saturday in the second half.

"We've got a deep team," Majerle said. "We've just got to keep throwing waves at them, all 10 guys. We came out with good intensity (in the second half)."

GCU's effort on the boards was clear after practice time was devoted to correcting the box-out errors that proved costly on second-chance points Tuesday. The Lopes grabbed its fourth-best rebound total, 51, of the Majerle era with 14 coming on offense.

GCU's 18-0 run in less than four minutes of the early second half had a balanced attack from the starters – Lever twice in the post, Johnson and Drechsel getting to the rim and Frayer activity on a follow and fastbreak.

"Coach Majerle got into us a little bit at the half," Frayer said. "We came out and tried to execute a lot better. That was more like our game plan.

"During practice all week, that's all we focused on was defense. That was going to be it coming out tonight. Our second group came in and did amazing things too."

GCU still did not shoot as expected again from 3-point range, going 6 for 24 on Friday after going 9 for 34 on Tuesday, but capitalizing for 29 points off turnovers more than made up for it. Delaware State made five shots in the second half.

"Defense is effort so the theme tonight was play with passion, play with energy, play with effort," Drechsel said. "That shows on the defensive end."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.