Chicago reunion includes GCU rout

Saturday, February 16

Chicago, Ill.

1:05 p.m.

Grand Canyon

15-10, 8-4WAC

Chicago State

3-23, 0-11WAC

Grand Canyon

Chicago State

2/16/2019 4:37:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score

Johnson, M. Finke lead Lopes scoring in front of relatives

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

CHICAGO – Grand Canyon held a reunion that turned into a scoring party at Chicago State on Saturday.

Lopes junior Carlos Johnson was brought to tears by the support of 46 relatives and friends who drove nearly four hours from Centralia, Ill., to watch him play. GCU brothers Tim and Michael Finke played their only collegiate game together in their home state with about 20 relatives on hand from Champaign, Ill., which is about two hours away.

Even better, the Lopes were reunited with winning. GCU snapped a three-game losing streak authoritatively, darting to a 17-0 lead and trouncing Chicago State 90-59 at Jones Convocation Center.

Appropriately, it was Michael Finke (10 for 13, 24 points) and Johnson (7 for 10, 19 points) leading the scoring attack that put GCU (15-10, 8-4 WAC) alone in second place in the conference.

"That's all I've been wanting for three years, just to be in front of my family and let them see I can play," said Johnson, a junior guard who was born in Centralia, Ill., and lived there until moving to Phoenix for seventh grade. "A lot of people don't make it out from where I'm from. I'm not saying to the league, just to college in general. It brings me to tears for all of them to see me like this. It's surreal. I've never felt anything like this. I've never felt love like that."

Many of the Johnson family members wore shirts displaying photos of Johnson, who returned to the GCU starting lineup this week after not starting since the first five games of the season. Lopes junior swingman Oscar Frayer also returned to the starting lineup with Johnson, Damari Milstead, Michael Finke and Alessandro Lever, a lineup that head coach Dan Majerle plans to keep in place.

That group shut out Chicago State (3-23, 0-11 WAC) for the first 6:40 of Saturday's game and did not all a field goal made for the first 8:14. The Lopes were never challenged, taking a 51-23 lead to halftime with Michael Finke following a career-high 36-point game on Thursday with a 15-point first half Saturday.

Before Thursday's game at Kansas City, Majerle wrote on a locker room board that GCU's regular season had six conference games remaining.

"I thought, 'Dang, it's getting pretty close,' " said Michael Finke, a fifth-year senior approaching the end of his college career. "It kind of hit me in a weird way. . . I'm trying not to take it for granted, that's for sure."

The three-game skid was rough for the Lopes with two three-point losses last week and an overtime road loss on Thursday. They returned to Phoenix on Saturday night with a better feeling after shooting 57.4 percent, which was easily its best field goal percentage of the season.

After losing the New Mexico State a week ago game on the boards, the Lopes also dominated rebounding for a second consecutive game. Chicago State only grabbed three offensive rebounds, two of which were loose balls that went out of bounds off GCU.

"It's been a tough three games for us so our guys came out really focused in that first couple minutes and held them, jumped out to a great lead and sustained it," Majerle said. "I'm very proud of them.

"Defensively, in that first six minutes we were pretty locked in."

Lever carried the momentum of his 18-point second half at Kansas City into a 16-point game Saturday, when he made four of six 3-point shots and shared the team rebounding lead with freshman guard Tim Finke at seven.

Michael Finke played assertively on offense again but did it mostly on the perimeter this game with a high shot release that is difficult for defenders to contend.

"The last nine or 10 games, he really found his way," Majerle said. "Sometimes, it takes a while for transfers. He's been in a different program and they do different things that we do. So he's starting to figure it out. That's great. If he and Ale continue to shoot the ball, they're hard to stop. They give teams a hard problem."

The game went so well that it created a special moment for walk-on freshman Raef Gerdes. Because of the overtime loss on Thursday, Gerdes did not get a chance to play that game in his hometown. With a blowout Saturday, Gerdes played the final four minutes. He scored a point on a free throw in November but hit his first field goal when senior Matt Jackson set him up with a screen and Gerdes drained a 3-pointer that drew the largest Lopes bench eruption of the game.

The Lopes head into a three-game homestand with a better feeling, hoping that they can turn a three-game losing streak into a winning streak that they carry into the WAC Tournament, just as last season's team did.

"Hopefully, we'll be hitting on all cylinders as we get into March," Majerle said. "We just have to wait and see but I really like our team. I like our guys. It's unfortunate when you drop three games like that because things are not pretty. It's hard but sometimes you have to battle through some hard times."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.