Offense can't match defense; win streak ends

Saturday, February 20

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

13-4, 7-1

California Baptist

5-5, 11-8

California Baptist

Grand Canyon

2/20/2021 10:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Drew Radio Photo Gallery

California Baptist closes on a 14-7 run to split weekend visit

By: Paul Coro

When the Grand Canyon defense holds the WAC's top scoring offense to 16 fewer points than its season average, the Lopes offense is only asked to finish the job.

Leading 55-51 with six minutes remaining, GCU missed eight of its last nine field goal attempts and four of its last nine free throw attempts to see a nine-game winning streak end with California Baptist's 65-62 upset victory Saturday night at GCU Arena.

In that CBU 14-7 finishing run, Lancers point guard Ty Rowell was responsible for all but one of the final 14 CBU points by scoring or assisting. GCU came up with three crunch-time defensive stops but did not follow with a score each time to suffer its first loss since Dec. 22 against Colorado.

"We didn't come out with the same fire that we've come out with before for some reason, but they had a lot to do with that for how aggressive they were," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "Usually, the more aggressive and tougher team wins and they were more aggressive and tougher tonight."

The Lopes (13-4, 7-1 WAC) may still be in control of the conference race with four games remaining, depending on the WAC formula for an uneven amount of games played when the regular season ends in two weeks.

Mikey Dixon

GCU was in control of closing out a more physical CBU effort a night after beating the Lancers 71-61. CBU entered the weekend as the nation's second-best 3-point shooting team at 41% but went 10 for 35 (29%) in the split with GCU.

The Lancers did not need the 3s on Saturday night, when they shockingly outscored the Lopes 34-24 in the paint and used 14 GCU turnovers to get 10 fastbreak points.

"It was a fantastic college basketball game in probably right now the best college basketball environment that there is," CBU head coach Rick Croy said on his radio postgame interview. "Tonight was special. We have a great group of people, and when you have a great group of people, you want to capture moments. Tonight was a moment for our guys. We have great respect for GCU. They've been playing outstanding basketball and they've been a very consistent team. They're bought in and they are extremely well-coached and they have veteran leadership."

GCU was outrebounded (41-40) for only the second time this season despite senior center Asbjørn Midtgaard grabbing 15 boards, his best total since a 17-rebound season opener. CBU senior Elijah Thomas, a Peoria (Ariz.) Sunrise Mountain High School graduate, was averaging 5.7 rebounding before snagging a career-high 14 boards on Saturday night.

"They just ran us over," Midtgaard said. "They outrebounded us this game. That's a huge emphasis for us. That was a big key factor of them winning the game.

"We weren't prepared for it (the physicality) when we should be. We just have to do better than that. We've got to be more focused and execute our stuff better and just make sure we're ready to go the moment that ball is tipped off."

Midtgaard was 5 for 7 from the field but committed five turnovers, as GCU could not take enough advantage of its size with him and senior power forward Alessandro Lever. Lever was 4 of 13 from the field, including a potential go-ahead 3-pointer that danced around the rim before popping out with 24 seconds to go.

"I thought we got a little tired in the second half," Drew said of his team, which had a 20-day layoff before Friday's win. "I think some of it was the physicality of the game, but we didn't come out and really assert ourselves in the paint like we usually do. That's something that we'll address and hopefully be better at next week.

"I think we defended well enough. It was definitely our offense. We just had some plays inside that our players have been making that for some reason didn't make tonight."

Gabe McGlothan

The Lopes were threatening to have their best 3-point shooting game of the season when they made 9 of 18, including sophomore point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. going 4 for 7 and senior Mikey Dixon going 3 for 8. But they missed their final four 3-point shots.

More frustrating for GCU, the Lopes were only 13 for 37 (35%) from inside the arc and came up empty on three consecutive tries at post-ups with the game tied at 57-57. Blacksher's entry pass to Midtgaard didn't connect and went out of bounds. Lever missed a post-up and a tip-in with a size advantage. Midtgaard missed two free throws after fouling out CBU's usual best big man, Gorjok Gak, for the second straight night.

The third opportunity set up the Lancers to take the lead for good when Rowell fed reserve Malik Wade on a pick-and-roll score with 1:29 to go. Rowell made five of six free throws down the stretch to finish with 19 points, eight assists and one turnover while playing 39 minutes for a second consecutive night.

"Every time we got a little run, our guys just didn't have emotions," Drew said. "It was like they were emotionally exhausted a little bit from their runs."

The game had an identical 34-30 GCU halftime lead to Friday night's game, again ending on a Blacksher score for momentum when he dropped a 3. The Lopes stretched that lead to 53-41 on a Dixon 3 as the defense blanked the Lancers for 4:42. CBU made five of its next six shots to re-energize with a tie game.

GCU finishes the regular season with a two-game trip to Seattle U (9-8, 2-3 WAC), featuring WAC leading scorer Darrion Trammell, and a two-game home finale with Utah Valley (8-9, 6-3 WAC).

"I hope more than anything that this will be a little wake-up call that we're not unbeatable," Midtgaard said. "We've still got to get nitty-gritty and we've just got to get going again."