Dominant 'D' follows awesome 'O' for sweep

Saturday, January 16

Phoenix, Ariz.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

8-3, 2-0

Bethesda

0-11

Bethesda (CA)

Grand Canyon

1/16/2021 5:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Drew Presser Lloyd Presser Photo Gallery

Lloyd posts double-double; Bethesda held to 27% shooting.

By: Paul Coro

The whole purpose of Grand Canyon practices has been for the work to become so intuitive that it's repeatable.

GCU head coach Bryce Drew would be hard-pressed to find a better repeat than the Saturday sequel of a back-to-back set with Bethesda. After routing the Flames by 59 points on Friday night, GCU unleashed a 98-47 defensive demolition on them Saturday at GCU Arena.

The difference was all in the style. Friday's rout was on the strength of a hot-shooting, rim-rattling scorefest, which set a Division I-era program scoring record of 121 points. On Saturday, the Lopes (8-3) kept Bethesda to 27.0% shooting for their lowest opponent shooting percentage since March 4, 2017, against CSU Bakersfield (26.8%).

In 11 games, this GCU team has held opponents to less than 30% shooting twice after doing so once in the previous two seasons combined.

"Defensively, we locked in a little bit better," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "Even the shots they made, I thought they had to work harder for them."

On Friday, a 34-8 GCU run in the middle of the game deflated Bethesda. On Saturday, 27 unanswered points extinguished the Flames by shutting them out for eight minutes.

The dominance gave Drew another chance to give his bench more experience and freshman guard Liam Lloyd seized the opportunity with 15 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals in 22 minutes. Until this weekend, Lloyd had scored three points in 18 minutes of action.

Only three other Division I-era Lopes have recorded a double-double off the bench. Teammates Jovan Blacksher Jr., Oscar Frayer and Alessandro Lever are the only other true freshmen to post a double-double in that time.

"For me personally, it's really cool to score a lot of points and get all those rebounds," Lloyd said. "I just have to keep working harder for the future and try to help the culture and build the team to make them better.

"Every chance I get an opportunity to step on the floor, I'm going to play as hard as I can. That's what I did tonight. I was just having fun."

Lloyd showed his basketball acumen with his mechanically sound shot (3 for 5 on 3-pointers), hustle for rebounds and the savvy to steal an inbound and beat the halftime buzzer with a lay-in that gave GCU a 44-18 lead. He has been well-schooled in what elite college basketball requires as the son of Tommy Lloyd, the 20-year assistant coach of No. 1 Gonzaga.

"He's going to tell me exactly what he always tells me: he's going to tell me good job and tell me I have to keep working," Lloyd said. "He just tells me to keep working and my time will come. Hard work pays off."

After his press conference interview, Lloyd went to the practice gym to put up shots, just as he would after not playing.

That basketball lab is building better players beyond the ones who have been in the regular rotation. In a normal year, GCU would have played more November games that provide experience for the newcomers.

This weekend's games, which were late replacements for the canceled Chicago State series, provided a stage for freshman Chance McMillian to get more time as the backup point guard and for Pima Community College transfer Rashad Smith to tally 10 points and three assists in 12 minutes.

"By seeing some guys these last two days, it gives us a better idea of maybe where we could get them some minutes and where they could really help our team out and in what situations," Drew said. "You're always auditioning for minutes, whether it's practicing or games or the last two minutes. Some guys played really well and gained some confidence from coaches."

The blowout began in similar fashion with GCU's size advantage crushing Bethesda. Lopes center Asbjørn Midtgaard collected his fourth double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) after not having one in his first three years at Wichita State.

GCU went from overdribbling in the first half for seven assists to sharper ball movement in the second half for 17 assists and 65% shooting. Blacksher dished out 15 assists in 37 minutes over the two games.

"When we make quick decisions, our offense goes a lot better," Drew said. "They've seen in less than a 24-hour period of when the ball moves and when it doesn't, how the results look."

Had the Lopes not added the weekend games, they would have gone from the Dec. 13 Arizona State game (a 71-70 loss) to the Jan. 29-30 New Mexico State visit without playing at home.

The Lopes are back on the road in WAC next weekend for a two-game set at conference newcomer Dixie State.

"It's such a different year," Drew said. "There's really no flow, no rhythm. It helps, when you haven't played home games, just to be able to shoot out there with a game setting and a game crowd. Hopefully, that'll help us for our next home games. If we hadn't played these home games, you're looking at about six weeks before we would've played a home game."

A night after Blacksher and senior Sean Miller-Moore made the SportsCenter Top 10 for connecting on a no-look, high-soaring alleyoop, the highlight material was flowing again Saturday. The unselfishness was shown most when freshman guard Jayden Stone passed up a fastbreak layup to put the ball off the backboard for a slam by sophomore power forward Gabe McGlothan.

The sweep came with a walk-on scoring sweep, as junior Raef Gerdes scored his first points of the season Saturday after Ethan Spry had done so Friday.

"It was super cool to see my teammates succeed and the bench goes crazy and we just play with a lot of joy," Lloyd said. "With the students (325 Havocs are allowed), it definitely adds a whole different environment to the game. When we go on road games, we definitely miss them. The students have a huge effect on the game."