Texas tussles too tough for Lopes

Saturday, December 15

Austin, Texas

4 p.m.

Grand Canyon

5-5

Texas

7-3

Grand Canyon

Texas

12/15/2018 7:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score PHOTO GALLERY

GCU trailed by 26 at halftime vs. Longhorns' hot shooting

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

AUSTIN, Texas – Grand Canyon has played through rough spots, responded to deep deficits and been unfazed by top programs.

That is what made Saturday's loss at Texas all the more torturous. GCU never challenged the Longhorns, falling behind by 26 points by halftime before losing 98-60 at Frank Erwin Center.

Texas (7-3) entered Saturday in the nation's bottom 50 for shooting but shot 69 percent in the first half and made 16 of 30 shots from 3-point range for the game. Resistance was futile for a Lopes team that trailed by 20 points in fewer than 15 minutes of play.

The Longhorns were ranked 17th nationally when they beat North Carolina for a 5-0 start and looked like it again with wingspans that contested shots and speedsters that broke down GCU.

"It's just us not being tough enough," Lopes head coach Dan Majerle said of the team's worst loss since three years ago at Louisville. "They imposed their will on us. Right from the beginning, we didn't get any stops. We've got to get tougher. Hopefully, it's an eye-opener for a lot of our guys in there. Sometimes, these kinds of losses are good for you. It gets you back to being really grounded. We've hung with some really good teams but this was just an old-fashioned butt-whooping. There was just nothing good about this game at all."

GCU senior power forward Michael Finke led the team with 17 points but 14 of that was after halftime, when the outcome already was clear. The Lopes (5-5) did not make consecutive defensive stops until the final two minutes of the first half, when Texas made 10 of 17 3s after shooting 30.4 percent from the arc on the season.

The Longhorns came at GCU in waves with its bench playing just as strongly because leading scorer Kerwin Roach II did not start because he was late to a team film session. He posted 15 points and five assists in 22 minutes but starting guards Jase Febres and Elijah Mitrou-Long each scored 16.

"I knew the team that we were playing had played Nevada to the end so I knew that (defense) was how we were going to win the game," Mitrou-Long said.

Texas' back-line defenders blocked or changed interior shots as GCU shot 38.7 percent, its worst field goal clip since a season-opening loss at South Dakota State.

The Longhorns scored on their first seven possessions of the game for a 16-6 lead.

"When a team punches you, you've got to respond better," Lopes senior guard Trey Drechsel said. "You have to come out ready to play. It's a new experience for a lot of us. I've never lost a game like that in my career. It's a lot of feelings that I don't know how to process."

Coming off a home win against Boise State and trailing No. 7 Nevada by one point with 2:55 remaining, the Lopes figured to be poised for another strong representation on a grander stage. In front of a quiet crowd of 8,625 fans, Texas was the team with the strong follow-up after beating Purdue last weekend.

"It just looked we were shell-shocked for whatever reason," Majerle said. "I don't get it. I thought our guys had a great week of practice. They were fired up about this game. They were ready to go. They had great attitudes yesterday and at shootaround today but Texas just came out and took it right to us and dismantled us from the beginning and took our heart."

Texas picked GCU's defense apart with ball movement, assisting on 15 of its 22 first-half baskets. Whether the Longhorns ran weave plays, put all five players on the arc or used pick-and-roll, they executed repeatedly for open 3-pointers or scores in the paint. Texas only scored twice in the mid-range during the first half.

The performance followed a Saturday morning shootaround in which Texas head coach Shaka Smart said he showed a video of each of his players making shots to build confidence.

"You can draw up as many Xs and Os as you want but, at the end of the day, you've got to get down and guard," Finke said. "They were getting anything and everything they wanted offensively. Coach Majerle said it best at halftime: They were playing 5 on 0. It was so embarrassing to be out there at that point. In the second half, you want to go out there and fight."

Even with a better effort, the lead stretched to 31 before the midpoint of the second half. GCU tried different looks with senior Gerard Martin handling backup point guard duties, enabling sophomore Roberts Blumbergs to get back in the rotation.

Junior guard Carlos Johnson brought continuous energy off the bench, tallying 13 points with a team-high seven rebounds. Smart singled out how pleased he was with Texas holding GCU's season leading scorer, sophomore center Alessandro Lever, to seven points on 3-for-11 shooting.

"We just got our butt whooped on TV," Johnson said. "We've got to come back and fight from that and see how we battle back from adversity."

GCU stays on the road for a Wednesday game at Northern Iowa (4-6), which lost 77-54 to No. 22 Iowa on Saturday.

"There's no way that I thought we would get beat like this," Majerle said. "We've been a pretty good team and hung with some really good teams. We got punched in the mouth early and, for whatever reason, we couldn't fight back. It just never stopped. I was very disappointed in our guys but you have to give a lot of credit to Shaka and their guys. That was a clinic they put on us."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.