Trio leads road win's sizzling start

Thursday, January 16

Chicago, Ill. / Jones Convocation Center

6 p.m. (Phoenix time)

Grand Canyon

6-11,1-2WAC

Chicago State

4-16,0-5WAC

Grand Canyon

Chicago St.

1/16/2020 8:40:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Postgame with Alessandro Lever Postgame with Mikey Dixon Postgame with Coach Majerle Photo Gallery

GCU records 1st WAC win with Lever scoring 25

By: Paul Coro

CHICAGO – If Grand Canyon is going to have a turnaround to its season, it had to start with a win that showed how it has one of the WAC's most dangerous offensive trios and a defense representative of the program that head coach Dan Majerle established.

The first half of GCU's 78-64 win at Chicago State showed that Thursday night. Lopes junior center Alessandro Lever finished with a career high-tying 25 points, junior guard Mikey Dixon had his best GCU game with 17 points and junior swingman Carlos Johnson played to his strengths for a 15-point, three-steal game.

But just as the Lopes (6-11, 1-2 WAC) held the Cougars to 34.8% shooting in the first half, their defensive second half gave Majerle and the staff plenty of coaching material heading into a Saturday game at Kansas City. Chicago State shot 56.5% in the second half but trailed by as much as 26 and never got closer than the final score.

"By any means necessary, we had to win and we needed it," Majerle said. "I went in at halftime and said, 'Good job, we shared the ball and we're up by 20.' I said let's got out in the second half and beat them by 20 again and we lose by six. That's one of the reasons why we're struggling right now. We've got to have a killer mentality. We got the win and I'm happy but we've got to play a lot better."

GCU busted open the game with a 26-9 stretch in the first half that included three consecutive 3-point makes by Dixon, the team's top shooter who began to show it at the end of a near-comeback Saturday against California Baptist. In his fifth GCU game, Dixon made 6 of 8 shots and the Lopes outscored the Cougars by 22 points in his 29 minutes of play.

"This whole time, I've just been trying to get in my groove and I think I'm back," Dixon said. "Every game now, I think I'm back in the swing. We've just got to keep building and keep our focus. I feel comfortable out there and I saw my 3s go down early. That's a good sign and I have to build on that.

"It makes the basket that much wider for the next shot. That just gets me even more going and more confident to take the next shot."

GCU shot a season-best 56.8% from the field with Lever looking like a premier WAC offensive player, scoring from the post and hitting 3 of 4 shots from 3-point range. He now has made 42.0% of his 3s on the season in addition to being at 54.3% from the field.

Lever is averaging a team-high 15.6 points and added six rebounds Thursday night.

"We have to start the second half in a better way," Lever said. "If we do that, we're going to be fine.

"The first half was really good for us. If we can replicate that for 40 minutes, we're going to play good and win more games."

The Lopes quartet of Lever (25), Dixon (17), Johnson (15) and senior reserve power forward Lorenzo Jenkins (10) combined to outscore all of Chicago State's players. GCU used a new starting lineup with freshman forward Bryce Okpoh instead of junior guard Isiah Brown but the Lever-Dixon-Johnson trio is tough to match offensively in the WAC.

On Thursday, the trio made 19 of 29 shots, 7 of 8 from 3-point range and 12 of 15 at the free throw line.

"We all had it going in the first half," Dixon said of when GCU made 16 field goals on 11 assists with only four turnovers. "Us three could be deadly when we're all going like that."

Chicago State made 10 of 20 3-pointers to cut into the scoring margin but the Lopes usually defended the lane well as the Cougars went 11 for 36 (30.6%) inside the arc and only managed one fastbreak basket.

The game opened with GCU trailing 4-2 until the four-minute mark and only leading 12-8 when Majerle substituted sophomore Raef Gerdes, normally a GCU Arena favorite for late-game entrances.

Gerdes played rotation time in both halves for nine total minutes, as many as he had accumulated all season entering Thursday. He delivered three first-half assists as momentum changed to take GCU to its largest halftime lead of the season (43-23) and have the Lopes leading by double digits for the final 30 minutes.

"Raef had a great three days of practice and (junior center Louis) Bangai had a good three days of practice so I think they deserved to play," Majerle said. "I'm trying to hold these guys a little bit more accountable. Those guys deserve to play just as much as the other guys.

"You would like as a head coach to watch your team play so well in the first half to carry it over to the second half. That may have killed momentum a little bit but it's good to get off the schneid and get a win."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro