Lopes slip at home, fall to 2nd

Thursday, February 7

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

14-8, 7-2WAC

UT Rio Grande Valley

13-12, 5-4WAC

UTRGV

Grand Canyon

2/7/2019 9:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Postgame with Coach Majerle Photo Gallery

UTRGV ends GCU's streak of 16 regular-season home wins

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

If there was not enough motivation to beat New Mexico State on Saturday night, the fact that Grand Canyon now looks up at the WAC lead should only fuel the Lopes' fire.

GCU's 16-game regular-season home winning streak came to an end with a 72-69 loss to Texas-Rio Grande Valley on Thursday, putting the Lopes (14-8, 7-2 WAC) a game behind conference leader NMSU heading into the Aggies' Saturday visit to GCU Arena.

NMSU (19-4, 8-1 WAC) trailed by nine points with 58 seconds remaining in regulation Thursday at CSU Bakersfield but won 71-70 on a 3-pointer at the overtime buzzer.

The Lopes had rattled off five wins in a row by playing consistently strong defense but they gave up 21 of UTRGV's 28 field goals in the paint Thursday. The Vaqueros (14-13, 5-4 WAC) scored 17 points on second chances and relentlessly drove the paint to win for the fourth time in the past five games with the lone loss coming by two points against NMSU.

GCU went 3 for 16 on 3-pointers, missed four consecutive free throws late in the second half and made 15 turnovers.

"We just didn't play the kind of defense that we've played for the last five, six games and gave them life," Lopes head coach Dan Majerle said. "Then they made free throws down the end and we didn't make shots. You let a team hang around and they're going to beat you. They deserve a lot of credit. They played really well. They were coached well. We got beat. I got outcoached. We got outplayed. It's disappointing."

GCU held its last lead at 60-57 with 5:15 to go when sophomore center Alessandro Lever recorded his career-high fifth assist to set up a Michael Finke layup. After the Lopes survived on free throws (15 for 19) in a cold-shooting first half (33 percent), UTRGV scored nine of its final 14 points Thursday on free throws.

The Lopes tied the score at 67-67 with 45 seconds remaining when junior guard Carlos Johnson converted a driving 3-point play. The Vaqueros answered with a driving score and then added three free throws for a 72-69 lead with 8.6 seconds to go. A long 3-point attempt by GCU sophomore point guard Damari Milstead, who scored a team-high 14 points, fell short to reverse the tight 69-65 win GCU stole late at UTRGV.

"It started when we played them before," Vaqueros head coach Lew Hill said. "I thought we outplayed them for 36 minutes then and they outplayed us for the last four minutes. We just tried to come back and finish the game this time. The mistakes that we made down there to lose it, we did the opposite this time."

The Lopes had played their best stretch of basketball with four consecutive wins by double-digit margins but were playing their first game without senior Gerard Martin, a team leader who Majerle called the best WAC defensive player of the past three years.

His absence was felt when UTRGV scored 12 unanswered first-half points with eight coming on drives by sophomore point guard Javon Levi.

"We couldn't keep them out of the paint," Majerle said. "It's just a bad effort. It's something we haven't done for a long time. We've hung our hat on defense. We believe in defense and tonight wasn't our night that way."

GCU led 32-30 at halftime and opened a 50-39 lead with 13:28 remaining after a balanced attack of five players made eight of the team's first 11 second-half shots.

The Lopes offense sputtered with nine second-half turnovers against UTRGV's changing defensive looks.

"It's not a one-team league any more," Hill said. "We're coming up. We're not going to stay at the bottom. We're going to work hard to get up in the top echelon and battle those guys."

The Lopes have a quick turnaround to prepare for New Mexico State, the defending champion and conference leader that beat GCU on a half-court buzzer shot on Jan. 10.

"I would hope they respond," Majerle said. "We'll have a good practice (Friday) and then we've got a really good team coming in here on Saturday. We're still in it. If we win out, we're still in it. So the season's not over. And you've got to win the WAC Tournament anyway. But I'm just disappointed. This team was on a roll and had a lot of confidence. Tonight, it just wasn't the same team, especially here at home. We don't play like that at home."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.