Lopes stumble in OT at Seattle

Saturday, March 9

Seattle, Wash.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Seattle U

3/9/2019 5:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score PHOTO GALLERY

GCU to face Redhawks again Thursday in WAC Tournament

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

SEATTLE – When the Grand Canyon players sat silently waiting for their bus outside Redhawk Center, the thoughts rattling around their heads felt all too familiar Saturday.

GCU head coach Dan Majerle warned his team during Friday's practice about the need to do the "little things." Every little thing mattered Saturday, when the Lopes ended the regular season with an 83-76 overtime loss at Seattle U. It was the eighth time this season that GCU has lost a game that it was within three points, tied or leading in the final minute of the second half.

GCU can chew on that bad taste for a few days and take another shot at Seattle on Thursday with more on the line. The third-seeded Lopes (18-12, 10-6 WAC) play sixth-seeded Seattle (18-13, 6-10 WAC) again at 8:30 p.m. in the WAC Tournament first round in Las Vegas.

With Saturday's loss fresh, GCU will have a good idea of what it needs to do Thursday after becoming the seventh opponent in Seattle's past eight games to shoot less than 40 percent. The Redhawks went from a 12-3 nonconference record to a 1-9 WAC start to a 5-1 WAC finish.

"We worked so hard to claw back," Lopes senior guard Trey Drechsel said. "Once we had the opportunity to win in regulation, it was a letdown and carried over into overtime. We've got to be more mentally tough, though. Good teams win close games. That's the biggest thing."

For the second time this week, the Lopes led in the second half before falling on the road. This time, GCU led by as many as 11 points in the first half and still held a 58-54 lead with eight minutes remaining in regulation. The Lopes did not lead for the final six minutes of regulation, especially once Seattle guard Terrell Brown went on a tear for 14 points during a 16-8 Redhawks run.

The Lopes regrouped offensively once sophomore point guard Damari Milstead re-entered and created or made shots. Junior guard Carlos Johnson, who scored a team-high 22 points, made a 3-pointer to tie the game with 56 seconds remaining. Drechsel dug in for a defensive stand again Delate Jones, setting up two Milstead free throws that put GCU ahead 71-69 lead with 37.8 seconds to go.

Drechsel blocked a Brown drive but Seattle retained possession with the ball going out of bounds. Seattle guard Morgan Means, who scored 21 to share the team lead with Brown, took the inbound pass in the corner and drove baseline to tie the game at 71-71 with 18 seconds remaining.

The Lopes missed two chances to win at the end of regulation with Milstead splitting two Redhawks but missing a left-handed drive over Riley Grigsby and senior power forward Matt Jackson missing a putback with Brown contending before the regulation buzzer.

The overtime started roughly for GCU with Johnson fouling out with 4:02 to go and the Lopes not making a field goal until Milstead found center Alessandro Lever (15 points, seven rebounds) for a layup that tied the game with 2:11 to go. Milstead missed two free throws with the score tied and 1:34 remaining and Seattle scored on every remaining possession, starting with a spinning 3-point play by Brown.

Milstead answered with a shot clock-beating floater to make the Seattle lead 77-76 with 39 seconds to go but Seattle went 6 for 6 on free throws down the stretch while the Lopes came up empty offensively.

"We've got to come out with better effort," Johnson said. "When it's time to make plays, we've got to make plays and be a solid team down the stretch."

Seattle is winning lately with defense, holding GCU to 35 percent shooting after halftime. The game marked only the fourth time this season that GCU had lost a game when outrebounding the opponent.

"We played well in spurts and we had them and then we stopped doing what we were doing to win the game," Lopes head coach Dan Majerle said.

"I'm lost for words again because of the lack of mental discipline just to do the right thing. I told them that in the locker room: 'If that's how you're going to play, we're not going to be around very long.' We're just not playing well."

Drechsel posted his best rebounding games of the season against Seattle with 14 in the January meeting and 12 on Saturday, when he returned to his Seattle-area roots with about 50 relatives and friends on hand.

"It was super fun and nice to see everybody that I haven't seen in a while," Drechsel said. "At the end of the day, basketball is just a game and family's there forever. It sucks that we couldn't give them a better show but I was glad to see my family."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.