Lopes make 1st impression in tourney loss

Saturday, March 20

Indianapolis, Ind.

3:35 p.m.

Grand Canyon

17-7,9-3WAC

Iowa

22-8,14-6Big Ten

Grand Canyon

Iowa

3/20/2021 10:10:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Iowa knocks out GCU 86-74 to spoil NCAA tournament debut

By: Paul Coro

INDIANAPOLIS — With 22.2 seconds remaining in Grand Canyon's first NCAA tournament appearance, GCU head coach Bryce Drew subbed out his four seniors and sophomore Jovan Blacksher Jr. as the Lopes fans who owned the east side of Indiana Farmers Coliseum chanted, "Let's go Lopes!"

The purple praise sounds like part of a dream result, but it was more of an acknowledgment for the dreamy feeling GCU provided on the two-week ride to Saturday night. It began with the first share of a WAC regular-season title, carried though a WAC Tournament championship and floated on an NCAA tournament cloud all week.

GCU (17-7) made a good account of itself long before stamping its basketball brand on the NCAA tournament, albeit in an 86-74 loss to second-seeded Iowa in front of 240 Havocs and a national television audience.

Drew had warned that great offense beats great defense in the NCAA tournament. So 15th-seeded GCU was in for a long night when the Hawkeyes offense turned phenomenal and the Lopes defense became mortal. GCU had allowed 38% opponent shooting on the season, but Iowa's uber-offense made 54% of its shots to keep Iowa ahead all game.

"They shot the mess out of the ball," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said of the Hawkeyes (22-7), who set GCU oppponent season highs for scoring and shooting.

"We were just a few miscues, a few mental lapses, a few shots that if they would've missed and we would've made, we could've taken this thing right down to the wire."

Iowa made 10 of 22 shots from 3-point range, but also only committed six turnovers and outscored GCU 18-7 at the free throw line. The Lopes never led, but made a stiff challenge when sophomore power forward Gabe McGlothan provided a 13-point, six-rebound first half off the bench to pull the Lopes within four.

When two-time Sporting News Player of the Year Luka Garza sat the first half's final five minutes with foul trouble, the Lopes lost ground by missing eight of 10 shots and ending with a shot-clock violation against a small, defense-swapping lineup to trail 42-31 at halftime. The Lopes never reduced the lead to single digits in the second half, even with outscoring the Hawkeyes 28-21 over the final 10 minutes.

"It hurts," GCU senior power forward Alessandro Lever said. "It was our first time making it to March Madness. We hoped for a better result, but we faced a great team.

"It was amazing. I never felt anything like this before. It hurts that we went out this way but GCU has great years coming up. We set a tone for seasons to come. We put the program in the right direction."

That impression was left on Iowa, which began the week not knowing Grand Canyon "from a hole in the ground," as an Iowa columnist put it, and gradually gaining respect with its scouting. The Lopes showed that a facet like their top-10 rebound margin was no fluke Saturday by grabbing 18 offensive rebounds, matching a season high.

"We just beat a really, really good team," Iowa head coach Fran McCaffrey said. "Grand Canyon really impressed me immediately when I started watching them on film and they impressed me even more tonight. They compete. They share the ball. They move the ball. They defend. They rebound. That is a really good team and Bryce has done a terrific job with that program."

It was no surprise how talented Garza is. His 24 points matched his season average, but his 4-for-5 accuracy on 3-pointers was the poison pill that killed GCU. He had gone 2 for 14 on 3s in the previous four games and averaged 1.3 makes per game on 3.1 attempts this season. That looked more appealing to GCU than letting the 6-foot-11, 265-pounder go to work on the post and the free throw line.

Garza made consecutive 3s as Iowa opened the game with an 11-2 lead. He was 4 for 5 on 3-pointers for the game and 5 for 11 on 2-pointers.

"We wanted to make sure that we threw the first punch tonight, and they're a really, really good team," Garza said. "They were able to punch back and they have held their own against a lot of great teams, Colorado, Arizona State."

Perhaps because of first-time nerves, GCU made uncharacteristic defensive miscues to create an early hole that it could never escape.

"When you're playing against a team as good as Iowa, your margin of error is so small," Drew said.

Asbjorn Midtgaard

Lopes center Asbjørn Midtgaard finished as the team scoring leader with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting, but he went to the bench five minutes into the game when he fouled Garza for the second time.

It seemed perilous, but wound up fortuitous. McGlothan replaced him and energized the Lopes, as he often has this season. He made 5 of 7 first-half shots and grabbed five rebounds, including three for putback scores.

"Gabe was fantastic," Drew said. "He's been tremendous this last week and a half. I wish I could've played Gabe, Ale and Ash together because all three of them played really well in that second half. Gabe gave us a huge life. He gave us some momentum and confidence with his toughness. Gabe has been fantastic and we look for him to be fantastic for us in the future."

The first-half conclusion lost momentum, but the second-half start swung it fully to Iowa the Hawkeyes made their first three 3-pointers, including two by senior point guard Jordan Bohannon and another 3 from Garza.

GCU could not cut the margin to less than 13 until the final minute.

The Lopes went 7 for 26 from 3-point range and shot 43% from the field after clicking for 49% shooting in the previous three games.

"I wouldn't say nerves," said Blacksher, who continued his outstanding late-season play with 15 points, seven assists and two turnovers in 38 minutes. "I would say more excitement. The energy here, the energy from our fans boosted me.

"But to be here with this group of guys, our coaching staff, the brotherhood that we built, we just can't get over that. To be here with these guys means everything."

Iowa junior guard Joe Wieskamp's three-level scoring proved to be a difficult complement to Garza. Wieskamp tallied 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists, but GCU took an unexpected 13-point, seven-rebound blow from the activity of freshman reserve Keegan Murray.

Only four Lopes (Blacksher, Lever, McGlothan and Midtgaard) scored in the first half. Senior Oscar Frayer came on with an eight-point, three-assist, three-block second half and Midtgaard scored 11 second-half points while finishing his season as the national field goal percentage leader (71.8%).

"Really wanted to win this game for the seniors that really gave their hearts for us," Drew said. "Hopefully for the returners, this will give them a taste of what winning a championship is about. It's called experience because you have to go through it to learn it. Hopefully, now this will change some of the mentality, some of the work ethic and some of the focus with some of our guys and they'll really come back with an even better desire to raise their game to a higher level."

The national television audience got a taste of the Havocs, the 240 students who GCU flew in from Phoenix on the day of the game. In a crowd limited to 1,200, the Havocs and other Lopes fans created a tilted environment that a 15th seed normally would have more of in a full arena.

"This is a special place," Drew said. "I think it's the best-kept secret in college basketball. We're so new to Division I and you can see the excitement that our university has for basketball. Our fans, best in the country. If you come to a game in our arena, you saw a glimpse of it tonight, just imagine 4,000 students doing that the whole game and before the game.

"It'll change your perspective when you go to a college game. We're really excited to be at Grand Canyon. This was an unbelievable year for our program to get to the NCAA tournament. With our support, we definitely want to keep elevating this program and try to get to higher levels."

Lope tracks

Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren, a former Grand Canyon basketball player, was in attendance at the GCU-Iowa game with NCAA President Mark Emmert in seats on the opposite side of the arena from Lopes fans.
Abilene Christian, among four Texas programs joining the WAC next season, upset third-seeded Texas 53-52 on Saturday night.
GCU set a season low for turnovers against a Division I opponent with seven.
Lever finished the season with 1,629 points over four seasons, falling 85 points short of Joshua Braun's Division I-era scoring record of 1,714. Both played 122 games.