Defense, rebounding smooths bumps in win

Friday, November 12

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

North Florida

11/12/2021 10:44:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

GCU rolls 65-51, keeps North Florida to 35% shooting

By: Paul Coro

Grand Canyon put together a stretch of ideal basketball Friday night, rattling off 10 unanswered points to take a lead that it kept for the final 33 1/2 minutes and start a 1-for-16 shooting stretch by visiting North Florida.

Much like how GCU dominated Grambling in the Tuesday opener for a 30-point lead, the Lopes could bottle up parts of a 65-51 win against North Florida for a base to build upon with their revamped roster.

Until the rough edges of new combinations get smoothed, the Lopes are emerging with the high levels of defense and rebounding that led them to last season's WAC championship and NCAA tournament berth.

Playing before another sold-out GCU Arena crowd, the Lopes kept North Florida to 35% shooting, much like Grambling's 37%, and outrebounded the Ospreys, 37-20, much like their 43-30 edge on the Tigers.

"The staple of this team has to be the defensive end and it has to be rebounding the basketball," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "We have to get second-chance opportunities. It's a different team than we had last year. We were very skilled last year around the basket and it made up for a lot of other things that we maybe didn't do as well. This year, we have to rebound and play defense to make up for some other things as well."

On Friday night, those other things included 16 turnovers and first-half fouls that bailed out North Florida's struggling offense with early free throws.

PHOENIX,AZ - November 12: GCU defeats North Florida 65-51. Photo David Kadlubowski/GCU

PHOENIX,AZ - November 12: GCU defeats North Florida 65-51. Photo David Kadlubowski/GCU

Power forwards Yvan Ouedraogo (11 points, 10 rebounds) and Gabe McGlothan (eight points, nine rebounds) outmuscled and outworked North Florida while junior guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. led the team in scoring for a second consecutive game. Like Tuesday's 16 first-half points, Blacksher scored nine in Friday's first half, when he also dished an alleyoop to graduate forward Sean Miller-Moore and hit a 3-pointer on ensuing plays for a 29-16 lead.

The Lopes never allowed a serious North Florida threat beyond getting within eight twice in the second half, but also never put the Ospreys away because of fastbreak turnovers and mental errors, such as shot-clock and out-of-bounds violations.

There was a tenuous moment when Blacksher, the team's leading scorer again with 12 points, fouled out with 4:43 to play with the lead at 55-45, but that is when having a co-playmaker in graduate guard Holland Woods II makes all the difference.

"Last year, we ran into a lot of people denying him the ball and we just put too much pressure on him to handle it," Drew said. "You can see just having another ball-handler out there with him allows him to space the floor, shoot a little bit more, be a little bit more aggressive on defense."

Blacksher only fouled out once last season, when he intentionally took a foul with seven seconds to go in an attempted rally against San Francisco. Without him Friday, the Lopes polished off the win by going on a 7-0 run with a banked 3-pointer by senior forward Taeshon Cherry, a McGlothan putback and swerving drive by Woods.

Holland Woods

"I'm just trying to control the game and really dominate offensively even if I'm not scoring the ball," said Woods, who finished with nine points and a team-high five assists Friday. "Some players can really only affect the game if they're scoring the ball so I just try to do anything I can to make my teammates better.

"It allows me to thrive offensively and become a really skilled passer. The way we play, it puts me in spots to be able to get guys good shots."

Ouedraogo and McGlothan thrived beyond the box score with defense, which had each man make a key steal and McGlothan, who started Friday, add a blocked shot to fend off the Ospreys' most serious second-half push. GCU was plus-21 in Ouedraogo's 31 minutes, getting outscored by seven in the nine minutes he rested.

"His defense was really good," Drew said of Ouedraogo, who he asked to be more aggressive after the opener. "He was really locked in. He does a really, really good job of covering things on the defensive end for our team."

Drew went with a 10-man rotation throughout Friday's game, going to freshman guard Jalen Blackmon for playing time in each half. Cherry, who had not played since December until Tuesday, overcame early foul issues for 17 quality minutes with five rebounds.

"We're still trying to find who we are as a team," Drew said. "We're trying to find things we do well and really fine-tune those things. That's what you get a lot when you have eight new players and six new guys who are in the mix. It's going to take time. Games like this are great that you can win and you learn a lot and get better from."