More clutch play wins 3rd straight

Thursday, January 23

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

8-11,3-2WAC

Seattle U

10-11,3-3WAC

Seattle U

Grand Canyon

1/23/2020 10:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Postgame Quotes (PDF)Postgame with Coach Majerle Postgame with Johnson & Jenkins Postgame Radio with Coach Majerle Postgame Radio with Lorenzo Jenkins Photo Gallery

GCU downs Seattle U 80-77, moves into 4th in WAC

By: Paul Coro

Grand Canyon head coach Dan Majerle could not change having a perspiration-soaked shirt in the first half Thursday, just as his team can't change how it started the season.

But like Majerle emerging with a fresh shirt for Thursday's second half, the Lopes have a fresh look for conference play after sweating out its third consecutive win by beating Seattle U 80-77 at GCU Arena.

The Lopes moved into fourth place by closing out a tight finish for the second time this week. Each time, GCU had to defend a potential game-tying shot in the final seconds, an appropriate ending on Thursday with the Lopes holding the highest-scoring WAC team to 40% shooting.

"We're finding our identity as the best defensive team in the WAC," GCU head coach Dan Majerle said. "And they have to grasp that, become happy with that, embrace it and wear that with a sense of pride. Offense hopefully will come, and I think it will. But we've got to keep playing defense and really hang our hat on being an aggressive defensive team. They can stop people, and I thought we did a good job of that. That's where a lot of toughness comes in."

GCU (8-11, 3-2 WAC) won despite having three players foul out, recording its second-highest turnover total of the season and making only 1 of 14 attempts from 3-point range.

Beyond defending well on every Redhawk not named Terrell Brown (31 points on 28 shots), the Lopes beat Seattle (10-11, 2-3) by dominating the boards (a season-high 47 to 31), putting five scorers in double figures for the first time this season and making a season-high 27 of 33 free throws (81.8%).

GCU only trailed for three minutes of the game but it was a 40-minute battle with the margin never leaving single digits. As they did at Kansas City on Sunday, the Lopes staved off repeated second-half surges Thursday until Seattle took two-point leads with 5:08 and 4:38 remaining.

From there, GCU scored on each of its final nine possessions of the game with junior center Alessandro Lever starting the close with a lefthanded 3-point post play. Lever played the final 5:08 with four fouls, adding another key post-up score down the stretch on his 16-point, seven-rebound night.

Junior Isiah Brown and freshmen Jovan Blacksher Jr. and Bryce Okpoh fouled out for GCU but Lopes junior swingman Carlos Johnson stepped up with crucial crunch-time plays at both ends for his seventh consecutive game of 15 points or more. Johnson scored in the post for a 72-69 lead with 1:01 remaining and then swatted Brown's shot at the other end 10 seconds later. GCU made 8 of 10 free throws down the stretch, including two from Johnson to ice the game at 80-75 with five seconds to go.

"We're playing more together, getting two feet in the paint and making better reads out of that.," said Johnson, who led GCU in points (17), rebounds (nine), assists (three) and blocked shots (two) while passing the 1,000-point career mark. "We're getting the big fella (Lever) and letting him get going and playing within our offense.

"Every game, we're going to fight."

Four different Lopes scored on the first four trips of the games for a 9-1 lead in a first half that GCU controlled except for one stretch where Brown scored nine consecutive points in about two minutes.

But the Lopes held Seattle to 34.4% percent shooting in the half with a big effort from Okpoh, who collected seven first-half rebounds and four points to help GCU outscore Seattle by 13 in his 13 minutes. Okpoh's slam follow was the Lopes' only field goal in the half's final seven minutes.

"We're going to hang our hat on defense and really concentrate on that," Majerle said. "To win a rebounding battle against a rebounding team, 47-31, was huge."

For the second time in three games, senior power forward Lorenzo Jenkins scored in double figures off the bench and GCU added a second double-digit scorer with Brown making a career-high eight free throws to score more points (10) than he had tallied in the previous three games combined.

"We feel like we're definitely one of the better teams in this conference," Jenkins said. "We just haven't showed it yet but we know what we can do and what we're capable of."

GCU nearly even moved into third place Thursday until CSU Bakersfield rallied and beat Utah Valley in overtime. The Lopes get another crack at the standings climb on Saturday, when Utah Valley visits GCU Arena.

In a season of uncertainties and inconsistencies in nonconference play, GCU has overcome dropping two winnable games for its first three-game winning streak.

"This has been a huge challenge, but I enjoy it just as much as I have any other year," Majerle said. "It's just a different challenge. We have three seasons. The first season was bad in non-conference. WAC season started off horrible, but it's all about how you finish and right now we've got to keep rolling."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.