Strong finish nets road victory

Wednesday, December 19

Cedar Falls, Iowa

6:30 p.m.

Grand Canyon

6-5

Northern Iowa

4-7

Grand Canyon

UNI

Photo by: Jason Rubin

12/19/2018 10:44:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score

GCU tabs 1st non-conference away win in 3 years

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

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Winning in front of sold-out, raucous crowds at GCU Arena never lacks fulfillment but winning on another team's floor gave Grand Canyon a special satisfaction Wednesday night.

The Lopes beat Northern Iowa 73-62 at McLeod Center, where the Panthers have won 79 percent of their games since 2006. In doing so, GCU showed road resolve and in-game wherewithal by shaking off a Northern Iowa comeback by scoring 24 points in the game's final 6:39.

The Lopes (6-5) posted their first non-conference road win since December 2015 by dominating at both ends, even if it was separately in each half. The defense held Northern Iowa to two points over a 10-minute stretch in the first half and the offense scored on 12 of the game's final 14 possessions.

"The best thing about it is I thought they played more disciplined," GCU head coach Dan Majerle said. "When you do that and play hard, good things happen. Their attitude has been great. It was great before Texas and it's been great since we've been here. We had a spirited practice yesterday. Our shootaround today was great. I give all of our credit to our guys because they've taken all of this to heart and you can tell they wanted to win and they're a good group. They really started focusing. Hopefully, this will be a couple steps forward and we can build on it."

The Lopes stayed on the road after being blown out at Texas on Saturday and gave an appropriate response Wednesday night with a strong start and a resilient finish.

GCU led 21-9 after 15 minutes but Northern Iowa made four consecutive 3-pointers to tighten the halftime lead to 29-21. That carried over to more hot shooting in the second half, when Panthers freshman guard A.J, Green highlighted his season-high 27 points with consecutive 3-pointers.

Northern Iowa led 51-49 with 6:58 remaining in the game before an Alessandro Lever 3-point play started a 13-3 run that kept the Panthers (4-7) from threatening again.

"After losing to Texas the way we did, we felt we had to come out here and prove a point, especially because we hadn't had a non-conference road win in three years," said junior swingman Oscar Frayer, who posted 10 points and six rebounds. "We knew we had to come out here and defend our hardest. It's been a point of emphasis."

Northern Iowa shot better than it had, making 11 of 21 3-pointers but Green did not have offensive help in the starting lineup with the other Panthers starters combining for 11 points. Northern Iowa only made 10 of 39 shots inside the arc with the Lopes playing active defense without fouling often. The Panthers did not shoot a free throw in the first half, when they missed 14 of their first 18 shots from the field.

"Those are steps in the right direction before WAC season," said GCU sophomore point guard Damari Milstead, who tallied 11 points, three steals and a key blocked shot. "You can give a lot of the defensive credit to Matt Jackson. He's a good defender. We've been focusing on defense so we wanted to lock in after not playing good defense at Texas."

Jackson, a Lopes senior power forward, started his first game since the 2015-16 season because senior power forward Michael Finke missed his first game with a foot injury. Jackson did not make a statistical impact but his ability to switch and talk defensively helped.

During GCU's run to retake the lead, the Lopes came up with three steals and a blocked shot while holding the Panthers to 1-for-7 shooting.

Lever, a sophomore center, scored 14 points in the second half on the strength of 9-for-10 free throw shooting that stretched GCU's lead for a comfortable finish to the game.

"The last six minutes of the game, they really hurt us (inside)," Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson said.

While staying out of foul trouble, Lever's interior offense fouled out one Panthers center and he used his physical advantage to score on another in the post.

"It's a credit to our guys because we really fought back and had great composure," Majerle said. "We just started to throwing the ball to Ale, which we did all of last year.

"I smarted up. I've been trying to get everybody involved in the motion offense. Everybody wants to touch it and to get their shots. I told the guys, 'I tried it their way and it's not working so we're going to feed the big fellow.' If we get 3s going into the post and then coming out, those are great 3s. We'll continue to feed Ale. He's our best player. He's struggled a little bit finishing down there but we've got to keep him working down there."

Just as Northern Iowa found its 3-point stroke, GCU responded to Northern Iowa's double teams on the post by firing and missing 3s often. Redirecting the offense through Lever in the paint and crashing the glass for 15 offensive rebounds proved more effective.

"For the whole game, they were double-teaming me and monstering me and other guys in the post," Lever said. "Later in the game, they stopped doubling me a lot so I found the right spot and they passed me the ball really well so I could score or get fouled. That win is real important. They went in front of us but we played really well and pushed them back."

It was another GCU victory with a strong bench effort, particularly from freshman guard Tim Finke. He had nine points, a team-high eight rebounds and two steals, including an acrobatic midcourt swipe during the critical stretch run. Finke deflected a pass over his man, darted to the other side of him to retrieve the ball while straddling the sideline and passed upcourt to initiate a fastbreak. Senior forward Gerard Martin was the glue to closing out the win, playing heavy second-half minutes.

"Adversity on the road," Frayer said. "We knew we were going to face it. There just comes a time when you have to knuckle up and fight back."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.