UNI keeps rolling with win at GCU

Thursday, December 12

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

4-8,0-0WAC

Northern Iowa

10-1,0-0MVC

Team	1	2	F
UNI	43	39	82
Grand Canyon	26	32	58

12/12/2019 10:33:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Panthers move to 10-1, open game with 11-0 run

By: Paul Coro

All the energy, execution and selfless play that Grand Canyon has been seeking was on display Thursday night at GCU Arena.

It just was the other team in purple. Northern Iowa was rolling like a locomotive when it entered GCU Arena off a Tuesday night win at No. 24 Colorado, and the Lopes happened to be the next team on the rails when the Panthers steamrolled them for an 82-58 win.

Northern Iowa held a double-digit lead for the final 32 minutes of the game, making the Panthers (10-1) another representative of a difficult GCU nonconference schedule that also has included losses to undefeated San Diego State (10-0) and Liberty (11-0) as well as a 7-3 Illinois team that beat No. 5 Michigan this week.

The Lopes entered the season with a short rotation, in height and numbers, and an aim to play its best basketball during the conference season. That will have to be the redeeming section of the season after GCU fell to 4-8, much like every WAC team that has four to six wins.

No matter the circumstances, the Lopes and head coach Dan Majerle will not accept the results, especially a 24-point defeat that made GCU 3-4 in an arena where it has been top 10 in the nation for home wins over the previous four seasons.

"It's because we don't have the right mindset," Majerle said. "It'll change, trust me."

The schedule does not lighten with the Lopes heading next to New Mexico, which is 9-2 before it attempts to sweep a series with New Mexico State on Saturday.

GCU will need a dramatic turn from Thursday, when the Lopes never recovered from going scoreless for the first 5:24 with nine consecutive missed shots. Six of those were 3-point attempts as GCU's season-long struggles from 3-point range continued with 4-for-24 (16.7%) accuracy. The Lopes are at 27.8% on 3s for the season.

"We started off shooting some 3s and missing them," Majerle said. "Then it snowballed and we would get the ball to the basket and not finish layups. We didn't stop them. I told our guys, 'We're going to go through stretches where we can't score but you've still got to be able to stop the other team from scoring.' And we were just atrocious on both ends of the floor. I thought we had a good couple day of practice. Our guys were ready to go and we just didn't have it."

GCU made one mild second-half threat with a 6-0 run that cut Northern Iowa's lead to 51-38 but three different Lopes players missed 3-point shots on the next three possessions and the deficit moved beyond rally range.

After going 14 for 26 on 3-pointers to beat Colorado, Northern Iowa hit 11 of 27 from 3-point range against GCU but also was 19 for 20 on free throws.

GCU won last season at Northern Iowa despite A.J. Green's 27 points but the sophomore guard had more help beyond his 25 points this time. The Panthers shot 53.1% from the field and scored 14 points on eight offensive rebounds.

"I thought Colorado and their crowd was pretty cool, but tonight was a whole another level," Green told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier of a sold-out GCU Arena crowd that was missing most Havocs after the end of the semester. "It was probably honestly one of the best environments I've played in so far in my college career. That energy in there was ridiculous."

The Lopes did not score Thursday until the entry of senior power forward Lorenzo Jenkins, who followed up a 13-point game Sunday with a team-high 15 points in 27 reserve minutes on Thursday.

Jenkins, who went 6 for 10 from the field, was the only GCU player to shoot at least 50% until junior center Louis Bangai entered late and made his only shot from 17 feet.

The Lopes only committed five turnovers, skewing a lopsided rebounding night (Panthers 43-21) even more. Freshman point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr., at 5 feet 11, led GCU with seven rebounds and four steals.

GCU is hopeful for the imminent return of junior guard Mikey Dixon and senior forward Oscar Frayer.

"Those are two guys that can help us, and the best thing about that is it'll start holding guys accountable," Majerle said. "This is production. You've gotta go out there and produce, and for me it's not about making shots. It's about playing harder and getting stops."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.