Progress builds up to pair at Dixie State

Jan. 22-23 \| 7 p.m. MT \| St. George, Utah

	DIXIE STATE TRAILBLAZERS (4-5)	vs.	GRAND CANYON LOPES (8-3)

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ST. GEORGE, Utah – After the second of back-to-back blowout wins last weekend, Grand Canyon head coach Bryce Drew ended his radio postgame interview by sharing how the Lopes should not be satisfied.

"We need to have a really good week of practice," Drew said after his team beat Bethesda by 59 and 51 points.

At the midpoint of its season, GCU (8-3, 2-0 WAC) is the only team in the nation to rank in the top 10 for field goal percentage (fourth at 52.8%) and opponent field goal percentage (fourth at 37.2%) but the Lopes still are trying to play catch-up for lost practice time and canceled games. They will try to recapture their rhythm in Friday and Saturday night games at WAC newcomer Dixie State with a New Mexico State visit looming next week.

"It feels like we're about one-fifth with not having a flow, the ups and downs, not practicing and games getting canceled," Drew said.

The Lopes found the taste of winning again, opening WAC play on the road with a Tarleton sweep before a pair of home nonconference routs against Bethesda last weekend. It also gave the GCU coaching staff two chances to run through the timeline and feel of back-to-back sets before returning to the road for consecutive 7 p.m. games at Burns Arena.

The 4,779-seat venue was limited to 771 fans last week, when the Trailblazers suffered their first home loss of the season to New Mexico. Dixie State is 138-30 at home since 2006-07, a stretch that included nine NCAA Division II tournament appearances between 2010 and 2020 before this season's Division I transition.

"From a coaching standpoint, it's very difficult to prepare for the same team, basically in 24 hours, and playing them again," Drew said. "It's a different mentality. As a coach, you always like to have time to make adjustments and you just don't really have a lot of time to make adjustments in less than 24 hours."

The Lopes are coming off their best perimeter shooting weekend of the season, making 23 of 56 shots (41%) from 3-point range against Bethesda. That type of shooting can open the middle for the national field goal percentage leader, GCU 7-foot, 270-pound center Asbjørn Midtgaard (73% from the field), and the inside-outside game of senior power forward Alessandro Lever.

Dixie State may counter with its biggest player, senior Jarod Greene, a 6-foot-9, 255-pound senior who started recent games but played 31 minutes combined in two losses at UT Rio Grande Valley.

"It's no secret that, with our two bigs, we play through them," Drew said. "We want to get them the ball. We want to get them touches. With defenses, it's no secret that they're going to try to keep them from getting the ball and try to flood the paint to make their touches hard and also to make their scores hard. Our team has got a lot better at moving the ball and sharing the ball, getting it side-to-side to get the defense moving."

In the Division II era for both squads, Dixie State enjoyed a 12-4 series advantage against GCU but the Lopes have the edge now as an established Division I program facing a transitioning one. The Trailblazers, led by 16-year head coach Jon Judkins, also dominated Bethesda recently but not by nearly as much (90-69).
With changing looks of defense, Dixie State ranks fifth in Division I for opponent 3-point shooting percentage (25.8%).

"We feel like we've made some strides this week in our practice time, but it's really hard to get a continuity and a flow with the stoppages and the quarantines," Drew said. "I still don't know if we're where we were before Christmas and the long break, but we've definitely made a lot of progress."

Lope tracks

This is the first time the Lopes have opened conference play with four road games since 2010-11, when they also did so at Dixie State.
Lever needs 37 points to pass Duane Gagnon for third place on the all-time GCU scoring leaderboard.
GCU ranks third nationally in rebounding margin (plus-11.9) with Midtgaard ranking 25th at 9.8 rebounds per game.
Lopes sophomore point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. ranks 30th in the nation with 5.7 assists per game.
Dixie State leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, 6-5 junior forward Jacob Nicolds, is one of three Phoenix-area products on the Trailblazers roster. Nicolds graduated from Gilbert High School.
Judkins played at Dixie State in 1983-84 when it was a junior college. He last coached Dixie State against GCU in 2013.
Dixie State's leading scorer, 5-foot-11 junior guard Cameron Gooden, was a Putnam Science Academy teammate and roommate of GCU sophomore power forward Gabe McGlothan. Gooden averages 12.7 points per game on 38.4% shooting.

Jan. 22-23 | 7 p.m. MT | St. George, Utah

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Players Mentioned

Jovan Blacksher Jr.

Alessandro Lever

Gabe McGlothan

Grand Canyon University Athletics