Lopes must avenge loss to be co-champions

Friday, March 5

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

14-6, 8-3

Utah Valley

11-9, 9-4

Utah Valley

Grand Canyon

3/5/2021 10:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

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Utah Valley moves to 7-0 on WAC Fridays with 59-55 victory at GCU

By: Paul Coro

The first Grand Canyon-Utah Valley game offered a chance to take control of the WAC regular-season championship race, but the Lopes only left the Friday night game with lessons to apply to the Saturday night finale.

Whether it's revenge or redemption or both, GCU returns to its home court at 7 p.m. Saturday with a chance of claiming a co-championship with Utah Valley if it can beat the Wolverines.

The first chance was grabbed by Utah Valley, which beat GCU 59-55 on Friday night at GCU Arena to move into first place and have a chance to win the regular-season title outright in the rematch.

The Lopes can pick apart specifics defensively, like giving up Georgia Tech transfer power forward Evan Cole's second-best scoring game of his career (20 points), but they expect to win when they hold an opponent to 40% shooting. It was Utah Valley's second-worst shooting game of the season and far off its 49% season clip.

GCU's offense left the most room for improvement, making 11 first-half turnovers, shooting 39% from the field for the game and setting a season scoring low on Friday night.

"We've played well, we've rebounded well, we've played defense well to be in this position," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "Utah Valley played really well. There's still a lot to play for tomorrow (Saturday). This is an emotional loss. It's hard to bounce back after emotional losses, but there's still a lot to play for so hopefully they'll be excited for tomorrow."

By winning on Saturday night, GCU (14-6, 8-3 WAC) can do more than claim a piece of a WAC championship for the first time. The Lopes could claim the No. 1 seed for next week's WAC Tournament by beating Utah Valley (11-9, 9-3 WAC) and winning the tiebreaker if either New Mexico State wins at Dixie State or Seattle U wins at California Baptist. New Mexico State and Seattle U won those matchups Friday night.

GCU will need more offensive consistency to make that happen. The Lopes went scoreless for a stretch of 4:47 in the second half to dig their biggest hole, 47-34, with nine minutes to play. That was after GCU went 4:03 of the first half without a point.

"The last 10 minutes, we did a better job of moving it around and that's how we need to start the game tomorrow," Drew said. "Guys were also really excited for this game. I think that affected our shooting early. We had some really good looks that we didn't knock down. Hopefully, tomorrow, we'll be more relaxed and be able to start the game shooting much better."

GCU limited two of UVU's main three scorers, but let Cole do the most damage as the fourth option. He did not score for the game's first 10 minutes or the game's last 12 minutes but scored 20 of Utah Valley's 36 points in that middle 18 minutes.

Cole made 8 of 15 shots, including 3-pointers and post-ups. Wolverines guard Trey Woodbury scored 16 but the Lopes kept a 55% shooter in J.J. Overton to 3-of-16 shooting and limited Aimaq to 4 for 10.

"You look at a guy like Evan Cole and how he controlled the game and he made plays to win the game," Utah Valley head coach Mark Madsen said on gouvu.com. "With Fardaws, he's a walking double-double and his rebounding is unprecedented. Trey Woodbury stepped in as our backup point guard and he orchestrated some excellent play from the point guard position. We're not celebrating tonight and the job is not done yet but I'm proud of what our guys did tonight."

After honoring four seniors before tip-off, the Lopes led 8-3 and 10-7 but played catch-up for the remainder of the game. Second-chance points helped the Wolverines to a 27-24 halftime lead despite GCU senior guard Mikey Dixon scoring consecutive fastbreak points, including an and-one, off his steal and one by senior Oscar Frayer.

The Lopes tried to re-establish senior center Asbjørn Midtgaard (eight points, six rebounds, two blocks) early in the second half, but Utah Valley was able to collapse on him in the post with GCU misfiring from the perimeter.

Frayer scored seven points during a 10-3 GCU rally that gave the Lopes a chance, but a four-shot Wolverines possession slowed the momentum.

"The tougher team usually ends up with the ball," Drew said. "When that ball went up, our guys need to be tougher to go get it.

"There were a lot of plays in the game where it went from their hands to our hands back to their hands. You've just got to keep grinding. You've got to keep battling for all those loose balls. If you give the effort, eventually some are going to end up in your hands."

Lever led GCU's scoring with 16 points while sophomore Jovan Blacksher Jr. delivered nine assists without a turnover, but the Lopes only shot three free throws for its lowest game free throw attempts total of the program's Division I era. Two of those were rewarded for a flagrant foul.

GCU was hindered at the small forward position, where Oscar Frayer was limited by foul trouble and Sean Miller-Moore suffered a deep thigh bruise that limited his time and ability.

The Lopes did turn around their ball care in the second half, when they only made two turnovers but shot 33%.

"I thought, in the second half, we did better passing," Drew said. "Hopefully, that will continue into tomorrow's game."