Lopes nipped for 1st loss this season

Saturday, December 12

Cedar City, UT

12 p.m.

Grand Canyon

4-1,0-0WAC

Southern Utah

2-1,0-0Big Sky

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Grand Canyon	16	29	23	15	83
Southern Utah	22	22	19	21	84

12/12/2020 2:12:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

GCU freshman Tiarra Brown scores 20, but Lopes lose late lead

By: Sierra Smith

CEDAR CITY, Utah — The Grand Canyon women's basketball team fell for the first time this season in a nail-biter against Southern Utah 84-83.

The lead changed nine times throughout the game and never reached higher than a 10-point margin between the two squads. Southern Utah had a 10-point lead in the second quarter at the 6:41 mark but Lopes rallied in the third quarter to take a seven-point lead, an advantage they held again with 2:22 remaining in the game.

Southern Utah closed the game with an 8-0 run to end GCU head coach Molly Miller's 36-game winning streak, 32 of which were at Drury last season before a 4-0 start to her first GCU season.

"I think what hurt us was we could never really gain some decent momentum with our foul trouble," Miller said. "I think that got us out of rhythm a little bit but that's basketball. We have to learn how to play through some of those basketball hardships, if you will, to be able to come out on top."

Freshman Tiarra Brown led the Lopes with season highs for points (20) and rebounds (eight) before fouling out with 2:09 remaining. GCU also received season highs in scoring from senior guard Ny'Dajah Jackson (17 points), junior guard Laura Piera (14) and junior guard Tianna Brown (nine).

The Lopes were called for 29 fouls and committed 17 turnovers while drawing 21 Thunderbird fouls and forcing 23 turnovers.

"When we're up by five with about two minutes left, that's when we have to really lock in and get stops and that was kind of our deficiency late," Miller said. "We weren't able to get a stop when we needed it."

GCU was ahead 83-78 with 1:36 to go, but the Thunderbirds capitalized on free throws and rebounds to pull ahead and win.

The difference in this game was Southern Utah's 17 offensive rebounds that led to 19 second-chance points.

"When you let a team outrebound you 42 to 28 and score 19 second-chance points and then combine that with 29 made free throws, you're not going to win a lot of ball games," Miller said. "That's over half of their points (on free throws and second chances)."

"We have to do a better job of just locking down and defending and making sure they're one and done on the defensive boards."

The Lopes look to bounce back as they head to Cheney, Washington, to take on Eastern Washington on Monday.

"This one should sting," Miller said. "It's not fun to lose by one point. We need to learn and grow as a team, come together and kind of move on, but also learning some important lessons along the way, because no one wants to feel that feeling of a loss. So, when you regroup and you rebound for the next one, you've gotta carry over some things that you 'coulda, shoulda, woulda' done and then put it behind you and have an extra fire in your belly."