Focus stays on UTRGV home game

Thursday, Feb. 7 \| 7 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| GCU Arena

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (14-7, 7-1)	VS	UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY VAQUEROS (12-12 4-4)

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There is plenty of buzz for the anticipation of New Mexico State's visit to GCU on Saturday night but Grand Canyon's focus remains on its Thursday night game.

The Lopes are starving the distraction and feeding their focus for a 7 p.m. game against Texas-Rio Grande Valley. A win could keep GCU in a first-place WAC tie with NMSU or put the Lopes alone in first place if the Aggies trip at CSU Bakersfield.

GCU (14-7, 7-1 WAC) enters the game against UTRGV (12-12, 4-4 WAC) on its best roll of the season. The Lopes have won five games in a row, posted four consecutive double-digit victories and return to an arena where they have a 16-game regular-season home winning streak.

"I think they're in a good state of mind," GCU head coach Dan Majerle said. "I know they understand that Saturday won't mean as much if we lose tonight. They've been good all year and have been locked in and understand what's at stake."

The Lopes were fortunate to escape their first meeting with the Vaqueros with a victory on Jan. 12. GCU won 69-65 because of a game-ending 10-0 run and sophomore point guard Damari Milstead's 25-point, seven-rebound, five-assist effort.

UTRGV only shot 40 percent against the Lopes but Vaqueros senior center Terry Winn scored 23. Winn and frontcourt partner Lesley Varner II team for 23.8 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. UTRGV's calling card is creating turnovers. The Vaqueros have the fourth-highest opponent turnover percentage (25.2) in the nation and boast the seventh-highest steals average (9.7 per game) with sophomore point guard Javon Levi ranking 10^th individually at 2.1 per game.

"UTRGV is a good team," Majerle said. "They're much-improved. They're not the team in the past when they were hard to beat at home and easy to beat on the road. They've been a good road team too."

The Vaqueros have won three of their past four games with the only loss coming in a 63-61 home defeat to NMSU. They have made 11 3-pointers in each of their past two games and rank as the WAC's top 3-point shooting team in conference play at 40.9 percent.

In the previous meeting, GCU was missing senior power forward Matt Jackson due to injury. This will be the first game that the Lopes play since losing senior forward Gerard Martin to a season-ending knee injury this week.

"If we don't win this game, Saturday doesn't matter as much," Jackson said. "We're absolutely locked in on this game. We'll deal with Saturday after we win this one.

"Practice has been really good. We're all focused. Everyone is getting in extra work and it's starting to show. We're hitting shots and playing confidently."

The Lopes' 3-point shooting has improved markedly, going from 30.3 percent in the first 14 games to 37.2 over the past seven games. UTRGV has the league-leading 3-point defense with opponents making 30.8 percent of 3s in conference games.

GCU is 7-1 in WAC play because of its defense, ranking first in the conference for points allowed per game (60.9) and opponent field goal percentage (40.8) to easily have the top scoring margin (plus-14.9) after playing each team once.

"Everybody's bought into their roles," Majerle said. "They're doing what they're supposed to do. They play hard."

Lope tracks

Senior guard Trey Drechsel is the WAC leader in defensive rebounds per conference game (6.4).
Junior reserve guard Carlos Johnson has scored in double figures in eight consecutive games. He has nearly twice as many double-digit scoring games this season (15) as his two previous seasons at Washington combined (eight). He is the WAC's fourth-highest scorer in conference games with 16.0 points per game.
GCU ranks 76^th in the computerized NCAA NET Rankings. The Lopes are ahead of seven Pac-12 teams. NMSU (No. 62) is the only WAC team ahead of the Lopes.

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Thursday, Feb. 7 | 7 p.m. (Phoenix time) | GCU Arena

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Players Mentioned

Trey Drechsel

Matt Jackson

Carlos Johnson

Gerard Martin

Damari Milstead

Grand Canyon University Athletics