Seattle trip emphasizes recapturing rhythm

Feb. 26-27 \| 7 p.m. MT \| Redhawk Center

	SEATTLE U REDHAWKS (9-8, 2-3 WAC)	at	GRAND CANYON LOPES (13-4, 7-1 WAC)

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Before Grand Canyon headed to Seattle in search of its winning ways this weekend, the Lopes were in GCU Basketball Practice Facility this week to rediscover what it had last month.

The Lopes' nine-game winning streak ended Saturday night when their offense stopped producing in the final six minutes against California Baptist, but GCU head coach Bryce Drew wants this weekend's two-game set at Seattle to bring back his team's physical and emotional levels of January.

GCU (13-4, 7-1 WAC) went 20 days between games, but won Friday night and led by 11 points in the second half Saturday. With most teams in rhythm by February, the Lopes are re-establishing their rhythm with four WAC games remaining.

bryce drew

"It's just really hard to get back and get that rhythm," Drew said. "I think our guys played really hard. I just think that second night, it all caught up to us and we just really got fatigued.

"We need to get better as a team, just physically get better and then we've got to gather that emotion that we had and that we played with in December and January."

The Lopes still are in control of their own destiny with the WAC regular-season championship race and the quest to grab one of the WAC Tournament's top two seeds for first-round byes. With a formula that combines winning percentages and percentage of games played, the Lopes could clinch a conference title this weekend with two wins and two UT Rio Grande Valley wins at Utah Valley.

GCU is 4-0 in conference road games, but has not played away from GCU Arena since Jan. 22-23 and is facing a team with the WAC's top two scorers – sophomore 5-foot-10 point guard Darrion Trammell (19.6 points per game) and junior power forward Riley Grigsby (18.0). Trammell, a City College of San Francisco transfer, also averages 5.5 assists and has cranked up his scoring average to 24.8 in conference play.

"The speed that he has and the shooting ability is a really tough coverage," Drew said of Lopes 5-11 point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr.'s counterpart. "He's going to score. We just can't let him score in the big numbers that he's been scoring."

The Lopes coaching staff rewatched the final six minutes of the 65-62 loss to CBU repeatedly. While GCU was outscored 14-7 down the stretch, the Lopes had three consecutive possessions in which they could have taken the lead and got the ball to the post without scoring.

"For the most part, we really liked where we got the ball," Drew said. "We liked some of the shots that we got. You're always going to second-guess things that you did but, going back, there were more positives with things that we did than negatives.

"It's not going to change who we are or what we do. We're going to continue to play through the post. If that's not working, then we'll look at other options. You never want to lose, but you obviously learn when you lose. I think good teams learn and then they adjust."

Lope tracks

GCU senior center Asbjørn Midtgaard remains the national field goal percentage leader at 73.9%. He also has the first streak of double-digit rebounds since Grandy Glaze did it in 2016.
Lopes senior Mikey Dixon averaged 6.4 points in the first 10 games and 12.0 points over the past six games.
GCU (two) and Seattle U (four) have played six games combined in February.
The Lopes are the nation's only top-10 team for field goal percentage (eighth, 50.5%) and opponent field goal percentage (second, 37.7%). They also rank seventh nationally for rebound margin (plus-9.5).
The game features two of the WAC's top freshmen. Seattle U freshman Kobe Williamson, who is from Australia, ranks fifth in the WAC for rebounds per game at 6.8. GCU freshman Chance McMillian, who is from Vallejo, California, is shooting 48.3%. McMillian and Seattle U's Viktor Rajkovic.

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Feb. 26-27 | 7 p.m. MT | Redhawk Center

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Players Mentioned

Jovan Blacksher Jr.

Mikey Dixon

Grandy Glaze

Chance McMillian

Grand Canyon University Athletics