Gritty effort beats KC in OT

Thursday, February 13

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

11-13,6-4WAC

Kansas City

12-14,4-7WAC

OT 1

Kansas City

Grand Canyon

2/13/2020 11:04:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

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Blacksher tallies 17 points, 12 rebounds for 71-66 GCU win

By: Paul Coro

Grand Canyon has failed and fallen this season but it keeps getting stronger every time it pushes itself back up.

The Lopes' resiliency proved steely Thursday night when they shook off a late six-point deficit to tie the game and discarded a missed potential winning layup to defeat Kansas City 71-66 in overtime at GCU Arena.

Led by Lopes freshman point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr.'s finest game, GCU won for the sixth time in the past eight games and stayed in position for WAC Tournament No. 2 seed with six regular-season games remaining. The Lopes went from winning with record-setting offense on a 103-point Saturday night at California Baptist to battling Kansas City's physicality and fouling on Thursday night.

"In the second half, they (Lopes players) did a much better job of being physical and taking punishment and protecting the ball a little bit better," GCU head coach Dan Majerle said. "We still had some turnovers down the stretch, but once again made some really key baskets. So I'm just really proud of how they played and grinded it out."

The Lopes (11-13, 6-4 WAC) trailed the Roos 59-53 with 2:28 remaining in regulation but three GCU players made two free throws each on the next three possessions to tie the game with 1:16 to go. Lopes senior power forward Lorenzo Jenkins retied the score at 61-61 with 38 seconds remaining on an 18-foot jumper, his first field goal of the game on an assist by junior guard Mikey Dixon.

Blacksher's brilliant 17-point, 12-rebound, five-assist, one-turnover game nearly was punctuated with a game-winning assist when he drove the baseline and slipped a pass to senior swingman Carlos Johnson for a layup. The shot missed with one second to go but Johnson stole the ensuing Kansas City inbound to send the game to overtime.

The Lopes are well-schooled in tight battles this season. They are now 7-3 in games decided by five points or fewer and/or by overtime. Johnson fouled out Roos guard Brandon McKissic and made go-ahead free throws with 3:04 to go and put the game away with clutch 3-pointers by Blacksher and Brown.

"We have a coach that is really competitive, passionate and our players are following behind him," Blacksher said after his second double-double. "I think we are seeing that. We all want to go out there and win."

The Roos cut the Lopes lead to 68-66 when GCU center Alessandro Lever passed out of the post to Brown, whose second 3-pointer of the game put GCU ahead 71-66 with 26 seconds remaining. The Lopes are shooting 44.3% from 3-point range in the past four games after making 29.8% in the first 20 games.

GCU won the game with one of its best season-long traits – free-throw shooting. The Lopes made 28 of 36 free throws (77.8%) while Kansas City was only 3 for 8 for the third-largest free throw disparity in Division I this season. It was GCU's second consecutive game with 28 free throws made as Jenkins became the first Lopes player to go 10 for 10 at the line since Joshua Braun in January 2017. Johnson made 8 of 10 on the way to 16 points, tying DeWayne Russell's GCU record for consecutive double-digit WAC games (15).

Blacksher is only the fifth player in college basketball to have at least 17 points, 12 rebounds and five assists while only making one turnover or none in a game this season. The others are three juniors and a senior.

"The coaching staff is giving me the confidence and talking to me, telling me what to look for and read," Blacksher said. "I feel like I am a quick learner so I take it and learn and execute it. Do what they say and it comes out fine."

GCU is alone in third place in the WAC and now within a game of California Baptist (7-3), which is not eligible for the postseason. The Lopes can moved to 7-4 on Saturday if they beat Chicago State at home.

"We are starting to learn to play as a team together," said Lever, who posted 18 points and eight rebounds. "The last couple of games, we have been playing way better. We play better on the road, so we try to bring our road game at home."

Kansas City did its damage on the interior, scoring 46 of its 66 points in the paint, but went 5 for 23 on 3-pointers and had two starters foul out. The Roos' fouls led to 18 second-half free throw points by GCU, including eight by Jenkins during a 20-6 Lopes run early in the second half after the Lopes' halftime adjustments.

"The buy-in has been great," Majerle said. "It's been great for a while now. (A post-loss film session) is when they really bought in. They saw it on tape, and they really started to play for each other. It's starting to really kick in. So I'm just happy for these guys. They've worked hard and had a great attitude throughout this whole thing."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.