Majerle 'encouraged' despite loss

Tuesday, November 6

Brookings, S.D.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

0-1

South Dakota State

1-0

Grand Canyon

South Dakota State

11/6/2018 9:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score PHOTO GALLERY

GCU drops season opener 79-74 at South Dakota State

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

BROOKINGS, S.D. – South Dakota State is a mid-major monster that seems unbeatable at home.

The Jackrabbits did not need their 79-74 home victory over Grand Canyon to learn that.

But the Lopes might have needed the stiff season-opening challenge to learn about a team with new parts to assemble for postseason potential.

South Dakota State lengthened the nation's longest active home winning streak to 21 games, stretching over 22 months, and showed it is in fine position to make a fourth consecutive NCAA tournament.

GCU showed it is not far off from that stature, leading in the first half and rallying to within three points in the final minute despite having three new starters and getting a quiet night from sophomore Alessandro Lever (nine points).

"I'm disappointed but I'm encouraged with my team," Lopes head coach Dan Majerle said. "I've got some new guys I got to look at in a regular-season game. We have a lot of work to do but I think we're going to be pretty good. This was just a good college basketball game. We hung in there."

It proved to be one of the best games in the nation on college basketball's opening night, especially when GCU scored nine unanswered points to cut South Dakota State's lead to four with 3:35 to play. But as ballyhooed as All-America honorable mention Mike Daum is, it was 2017-18 Summit League Freshman of the Year David Jenkins that destroyed the Lopes' quest to swipe a marquee road win. Jenkins, who matched his career high with 31 points, made two contested 3-pointers in a row to extend the lead.

GCU pushed back one last time with a Lever 3-point play and freshman guard Tim Finke's backcourt steal that set up a layup by junior forward Gerard Martin. That cut the Jackrabbits lead to 75-72 with 25.8 seconds remaining but GCU never got a possession with a shot to tie.

The Lopes had to play cleanly (six turnovers) and make free throws (17 of 20) to offset a 34.3 percent shooting performance. GCU fired nearly as many 3-pointers (34) as 2-pointers (36) with Lever's post-up game being largely negated by first-half foul trouble and the Jackrabbits' double teams from the perimeter.

"From watching his film from last year, when Lever could get in a rhythm, he could really get going," said South Dakota State head coach T.J. Otzelberger, whose team went 28-7 last season. "If he doesn't, it's hard for them to have him on the floor because defensively he's not as strong as the offensive side. Our guys collectively did a good job of not letting him get anything early and easy. As a result, he just never settled into the flow of the game. It wasn't his type of game."

The newcomers of the GCU starting backcourt, senior point guard Trey Drechsel and junior off-guard Carlos Johnson, shared the team scoring lead with 17 points apiece. Drechsel, playing his first Division I game as a 6-foot-6 graduate transfer from Western Washington, played coolly in stealing the first-half show with 10 points and four assists.

"His challenge is learning the point guard position and he's done a pretty good job of that," Majerle said of the former off-guard.

Johnson scored all of his points in the second half with his bull-charging style breaking down South Dakota State. Majerle said Johnson, a transfer from Washington, played too hesitantly in his scoreless first half, prompting the coach to tell him, "You're a dog. Take the ball to the basket and shoot it when you're open." He scored 17 second-half points after the advice, going 5 for 8 from the field and 6 for 6 at the free throw line.

The Lopes staff entered the game with concerns about rebounding and defense. Neither was assuaged by Monday's loss.

GCU gave up 18 second-chance points and was outrebounded by 13, a number boosted by missing 16 more shots than South Dakota State did. The Jackrabbits got into the lane often, scoring 38 points in the paint (19 of their 28 field goals).

The Lopes' depth was supposed to be an advantage but the GCU reserves went 4 for 18 (1 for 9 on 3s) as a unit and did not have the expected stamp of defensive energy to make up for it. Meanwhile, the Jackrabbits starters each played at least 36 minutes with freshman Matt Dentlinger's game (11 points, seven rebounds) being just as important as Daum's line (20 points, 13 rebounds, four assists).

"That was a bigtime, high-level college game," Otzelberger said of The Summit/WAC Challenge debut.

"We have a lot of respect for their program. It felt like a postseason-type game. The challenge for our guys was not only the physical toughness but the mental toughness we had to display each and every possession, especially on defense because they can score."

The Lopes did a bunch of that during an early stretch that gave them a 20-14 lead after Martin's corner 3-pointer. At that point, GCU had made four of its first eight 3-pointers. It made five of 26 from 3-point range for the remainder of the game.

"We relied on the 3 a little bit too much but we are a good shooting team," Majerle said. "We didn't show it tonight. (Shooting) 34 3s is probably a little too many but we can shoot it and we have through our practice and exhibition game. We just have to have a good mixture of taking the ball to the basket."

Drechsel made four of nine 3s but also took advantage of smaller defenders for turnaround shots in the post and drew a foul on a drive. The crowd of 1,933 fans was rendered quiet by GCU for most of the game, except for nervous energy during the latter parts. A near-backcourt steal or a missed front-end free throw could have been momentum changers for the Lopes late but their hole had been dug by allowing 48.3 percent shooting.

"We got outtoughed on the boards and then we just got beat too many times on straight-line drives," Majerle said. "We just didn't do a good enough job guarding the basketball one-on-one."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.