Season ends with tourney loss

Wednesday, March 13

Las Vegas, Nev.

8:30 p.m.

Grand Canyon

7-20

CSU Bakersfield

14-16

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Grand Canyon	14	15	10	20	59
CSU Bakersfield	15	18	22	18	73

The Lopes take on CSU Bakersfield in the quarterfinal round of the 2019 WAC Tournament in Las Vegas.

3/13/2019 9:20:00 PM | Women's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score PHOTO GALLERY

Lopes fall to Roadrunners despite early lead

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

LAS VEGAS — When these six Grand Canyon freshmen are finishing their careers, they can look back at their first WAC Tournament experience to see how far they have progressed.

The Lopes, with newcomers accounting for nearly three-fourths of the playing time this season, already saw the in-season progress as they entered the postseason tournament but it was not enough for the No. 6 seed to pull off an upset Wednesday night at Orleans Arena. Third-seeded CSU Bakersfield ended GCU's season for a second consecutive year, pulling away in the second half for a 73-59 victory.

"It's a painful time," GCU head coach Nicole Powell said. "It's a fresh wound so it's hard to think about that (future). But the experience that all of the freshmen gained, especially our returners coming back has been tremendous.

"Even though the results don't show that, we know the transformation that is happening in our program this year. We're in a long-tern build. This is Year 2. We've got all these guys coming back, which I'm really excited about. Now they've all played a lot of minutes. Getting this exposure and getting the chance to come out here and compete against senior-laden teams, that's just tough."

GCU (7-20) raced out to a 12-5 lead in the first five minutes of play but Bakersfield called time out and responded with eight unanswered points amid a 14-2 run. The Lopes last led 14-13 on a jumper by senior ShaRon Miller, set up by freshman guard Venla Varis with 38 seconds to go in the first quarter.

"We were knocking down shots and we were executing," Powell said. "That was really key. We were keeping our poise. It was that simple. We weren't giving up a lot of offensive rebounds at the beginning. Our first-shot defense had primarily against these guys been really good and I thought they (the Roadrunners) amped up the energy and th intensity and we weren't able to meet it."

With Varis setting up another 3 by freshman Laura Piera, GCU closed the half well to trail only 33-29. But CSU Bakersfield's offense exploded in the third quarter, when the Roadrunners (14-16) scored 17 points in a 4 1/2-minute stretch. Their 11 second-half offensive rebounds turned into 13 second-chance points.

The Roadrunners missed seven of their first nine 3-point shots on Wednesday but then went 8 for 12 on 3s for the remainder of the game. When Bakersfield senior guard Alexxus Gilbert closed the 17-7 start to the second half with a 3, the Roadrunners were leading 50-36 and kept the margin in double digits for the remainder of the game. Gilbert finished with a game-high 27 points, including seven 3-pointers.

"We fought to the end and that was really important to me, just to see us compete," Powell said. "That's something we've been wanting to do all year. Bakersfield is a very good team, a lot of weapons. That's no secret, looking at their second-chance points, offensive rebounding. Gilbert had an amazing game."

Varis continued her strong late-season shooting, making four 3-pointers to finish with a team-high 14 points. Varis made 16 of 34 shots (47.1 percent) from 3-point range over the final six games of the season. GCU junior power forward De'jah Daniel added eight points and a team-high eight rebounds.

"This was my first time playing in a big arena," said Varis, who is from Finland. "I was pretty nervous but then things started rolling and I ended up playing good."

The Lopes shot 41 percent from the field with 14 turnovers, following GCU's lowest turnover week of the season when it averaged 10.5 last week.

"I've watched them (the Lopes) grow," Bakersfield head coach Greg McCall said. "Especially since the last two times we played them, this game right here they (the Lopes) came out with a lot more energy and a lot more focus."

Bakersfield shot 46 percent from the field Wednesday and held an 18-3 advantage in second-chance points to beat GCU for the third time this season.

"Even though the results don't show it, we know it's been a successful year," Powell said. "We weathered a lot of adversity and continued to compete. These last couple weeks, I do think we improved and that will launch us off into the next year, the spring and workouts. I said to our returners, 'We've got work to do.' If you can learn from these games and these moments, they can help propel you forward."

It was the final collegiate game for GCU senior starters Kavita Akula, who put the Lopes ahead 12-5 with her first 3-pointer, and AJ Cephas, who scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds and a steal.

"It's bigger than basketball," said Akula, the first Indian-born scholarship player in Division I women's basketball history. "Coach Powell always says that. I'm really happy that everybody is coming back and I'm going to be part of them forever. I'm pretty happy for them."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.