Trap game awaits in Wooden finale

Sunday, Nov. 25 \| 6 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| Fullerton, Calif.

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (3-3, 0-0 WAC)	AT	LA SALLE EXPLORERS (0-6, 0-0 Atlantic 10)

WATCH: ESPN3 \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic, 99.3FM & 95.9 FM \| STATS: View \| FOLLOW: @GCU_MBB

FULLERTON, Calif. – Grand Canyon faces a trap game Sunday night and not just because La Salle enters the Wooden Legacy meeting winless.

The Explorers are going to throw speed, pressure and traps at GCU's green backcourt as the Lopes look to salvage a tournament win after rallies fell short against Seton Hall and Utah at Titan Gym.

GCU (3-3) will need to handle another high-scoring guard in 6-foot senior Pookie Powell, who averages 18.8 points and has a surname that reminds Lopes of how Seton Hall's Myles Powell scored 40 on them Thursday. In the past three games, the opposing team's high-scoring guard has averaged 30.0 points on 68.8 percent shooting from the field.

"We have to somehow find a way to get a win," Lopes head coach Dan Majerle said of the 6 p.m. (Phoenix time) game on ESPN3. "I told them, 'If we don't play well, we're not going to beat them either.' We'll find a way hopefully. We've just got to get better.

"It just seems like a backcourt guy is going to have a nice game against us every night. We just have to do a better job of finding him and making him do things he doesn't want to do."

La Salle is 0-6 but had been in every game this season before blowout losses to Miami and Northwestern in Fullerton. The Explorers, under first-year head coach and former Villanova assistant Ashley Howard, will make GCU scramble with a small lineup that starts three players at 6-2 or shorter. La Salle junior guard Traci Carter has the fifth-most steals (17) in the nation.

"We battled the entire game," Howard said of La Salle's 91-74 loss to Northwestern on Friday. "I felt we had lapses where we got fatigued because we were playing so hard, playing with a frenetic pace."

GCU sophomore center Alessandro Lever has re-engaged offensively during the tournament, averaging 18.0 points on 50 percent shooting. But the Lopes are looking for consistent supplementary scoring from his teammates, who have shot 42 percent in the tourney.

"We're not making 3s," Majerle said. "We're making bad decisions in there. Right now, we just got to throw him (Lever) the ball and hopefully he scores. If they do a good job on him, we're going to be in trouble.

"They've got to be smart. You can't just keep shooting 3s if you're not making them. You've got to pick to put your head down and drive inside-out and then a kick. Get to the rim and then kick. It's not like it's the first time they've heard that and they just settle for 3s."

GCU had turned around its rebounding issues during the three-game winning streak that preceded the Wooden Legacy. But on Friday, Utah darted to a 24-8 start in large part because of its rebounding dominance.

The Lopes have outrebounded opponents by an average of 21.0 in three wins this season and been outrebounded by an average of 6.3 in their three losses.

GCU should be able to rebound and shoot better against La Salle, which has the nation's eighth-worst rebound margin (minus-9.8) and allows 48.2 percent opponent shooting.

A GCU bright spot from Friday's loss to Utah was freshman guard Tim Finke, who made his first start. He sank four 3-pointers and scored a season-high 14 points. The 6-6 guard has the team's best rebound rate per 40 minutes (9.0) and is shooting 56.5 percent from the field, including 6-for-11 shooting from 3-point range.

"Tim's a harder worker and, with Carlos (Johnson), It's no secret that he's been really struggling in the first half," Majerle said. "Just mix it up a little bit. Get Carlos coming off the bench and see if he can watch the game for a little bit and get his feet wet and give that second group a boost. I think Tim is going to be really good. He's got to do a better job of finishing around the basket but he's got a lot of confidence. He plays extremely hard. I'm happy for him.

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Sunday, Nov. 25 | 6 p.m. (Phoenix time) | Fullerton, Calif.

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Players Mentioned

Tim Finke

Alessandro Lever

Grand Canyon University Athletics