Midtgaard breaks out for GCU in 2-0 start

Saturday, November 28

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Benedictine Mesa

Grand Canyon

11/28/2020 9:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Drew Presser Midtgaard Interview Photo Gallery

Centers sets career scoring mark before half of 94-63 win

By: Paul Coro

The size and skill of Grand Canyon center Asbjørn Midtgaard and power forward Alessandro Lever was an unfair match for visiting Benedictine Mesa on Saturday night.

But there will not be many opposing players who can look in the eyes of Midtgaard, at 7 feet, and Lever, at 6 feet 10. The Lopes pair pounded Benedictine to build a big lead that the second unit extended for a 94-63 victory at GCU Arena.

Midtgaard is making the most of his graduate transfer to GCU, setting a career rebounding high (15) in his Lopes debut Wednesday and posting a career scoring high (20) on 10-of-12 shooting on Saturday. In three seasons at Wichita State, Midtgaard never played as much in a game as he did Wednesday (25 minutes) and never took more than seven shots in any Shockers appearance.

Did he just need more than the 9.4 minutes per game he received at Wichita State to break out?

"So far, it looks like that, doesn't it?" Midtgaard said. "I got a great opportunity here and I'm going to take it.

"It just sounded like there was a trust here that was very unique. Like everyone was a family. It just sounded really, really nice. They said they would be upfront with me. There wouldn't be anything behind the scenes. They sold it well and, so far, I love it."

From coaches adjusting his post-up footwork and preaching patience to shooting in an empty GCU Arena on Friday night, Midtgaard was ready to be authoritative Saturday night with six slam dunks and deep position that put each of his 10 scores at the rim.

"The last three years of college, he would just run out and ball screen and roll and not get many post-up opportunities," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "I thought he was really on good balance on his shots tonight."

Drew told his team that it was more important to be productive than big. Midtgaard and Lever delivered on that. Midtgaard broke his career scoring high in the game's first 13 minutes and Lever added 12 points and five assists, one off his career high, as the duo each played 20 minutes.

Benedictine opened with hot 3-point shooting to stay close, but the Redhawks made 4 of their last 15 first-half shots to trail 51-34 at halftime.

The Lopes bench scored 13 unanswered points in the second half to take an 84-51 lead with freshmen guards Liam Lloyd, Chance McMillian and Jayden Stone in the lineup.

McMillian did not play until the second half Wednesday but made the most of extended playing time Saturday, when sophomore point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. picked up his fourth foul in the first minute of the second half. McMillian scored all 11 of his points in the second half on 4-of-4 shooting, including three 3-pointers.

"Chance really played well," Drew said. "He can really shoot the basketball. Once he got that first one to go down, his confidence you could see start to grow. What I liked is that he took good shots. He didn't force shots. He didn't take quick 3s. He let the offense work and then, when he was open, he took the open 3. He deserved to get all those minutes. He was a big reason why we were able to pull away in the second half."

With GCU debut jitters out of the way, Stone scored eight points, senior forward Sean Miller-Moore (an Oregon State transfer) scored nine points and sophomore power forward Gabe McGlothan gobbled up seven rebounds in 19 minutes and added nine points.

"He was very quick to the ball," Drew said of McGlothan. "That is something we need to get better at. We need to be quick to the loose ball, quick to rebounds. Gabe was fantastic during that stretch that we were able to build on the lead."

With 57% percent shooting and 56 points in the paint, the GCU offense looked sharper but the defense that won the opener against Grambling put up similar numbers. After holding Grambling to 36.2% shooting, Benedictine shot 34.6% against the Lopes.

Statistically, those are GCU's best consecutive defensive games since Dec. 2-5, 2017.

The wealth was spread around the box score with 12 Lopes logging a point, the most since 13 GCU players scored against Chicago State on Feb. 3, 2018.

Landing Benedictine quickly as a replacement game was essential for the Lopes to have more video and coaching points for the staff as they prep for former Phoenix Suns coach Lindsey Hunter's Mississippi Valley State team on Tuesday.

"A lot of teams have the same players and run the same system so they're working on just tweaking their system," Drew said. "We're still trying to get the players to learn the system so that's a big change from where a lot of other programs are at this point of the season. Any time we can get out on that court and play somebody else, guard different actions and see how they guard us and how we react, it's great to help us get ready for conference season."