Lopes start Texas trip with big victory

Thursday, January 13

Abilene, Texas

5 p.m. (Phoenix Time)

Grand Canyon

10-5,3-1WAC

Abilene Christian

11-5,3-2WAC

Grand Canyon

Abilene Christian

Photo by: Sierra Smith

1/13/2022 8:54:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Another clutch 3-pointer helps GCU win at Abilene Christian

By: Sierra Smith

ABILENE, Texas — The Grand Canyon women's basketball team kicked off itsTexas road trip with a gritty win at Abilene Christian on Thursday night. The ending looked similar to GCU's Saturday win over Lamar, with a Lope making a clutch 3-pointer for the lead with seconds to go.

This time, the go-ahead 3-pointer was off the fingertips of graduate guard Amara Graham, who finished the game with 23 points, four rebounds and three assists.

"I thought we had a really good game plan going in to stop what they were good at," GCU head coach Molly Miller said. "They were exactly who we thought they were and did a good job defensively, drawing some offensive fouls and we knew that was going to happen. Offensively, shooting the three 22 times, I thought we contested really well only holding them to eight. The bottom line is we were locked in defensively and that's always going to be our M.O. for every game."

The Lopes offense knocked down 10 shots from 3-point range and held the fourth-ranked 3-point shooting team in the country to eight 3s. Graham hit five treys for the Lopes.

Joining Graham in double figures was junior forward Dominique Phillips, who posted 19 points off the bench with three 3-pointers. Freshman point guard Ja'mya Powell-Smith added eight points, six assists and three steals.

GCU tied its season high with six blocks, which was led by junior guard Taylor Caldwell getting three rejections.

The Lopes dished out 17 assists, which is the most since Dec. 1 when GCU had 24 assists against Park (Ariz.).

The Lopes started the scoring by going on a 6-0 run, coming off of two 3s from Graham, to take an early lead with 8:29 left in the first quarter. The Wildcats answered with a 7-0 run and the game went back and forth the rest of the quarter, finishing the first period with a score of 19-17 in Abilene Christian's favor.

The second quarter began with a 3-pointer from Powell-Smith to put the Lopes ahead 20-19. After a bucket gave the Wildcats the lead back, GCU went on a 9-0 run, highlighted by a bucket from graduate guard Chloe Akin-Otiko, for a 29-21 lead. The Lopes held steady for the rest of the quarter, going into halftime with a 38-30 advantage.

Phillips finished the half with 19 points on a 6-for-6 performance from the field, including three 3-pointers. With three first-half 3-pointers from Graham as well, the pair accounted for 30 of GCU's 38 first-half points.

"It's nice to see your scorers put the ball in the hole," Miller said. "That's why they're on the court, because we have a lot of faith in them on the offensive end. Dom coming back from injury, it's good to see her kind of knock the rust off and hit some shots we know she's capable of. Bigtime numbers for those two. We can rely on them to have those double-digit scoring nights. Then the defense takes care of the rest. It's nice when both go your way."

GCU expanded its lead to 49-40 with 5:25 to go in the third. Before the conclusion of the third period, the Wildcats cut into the lead, but the Lopes still entered the fourth quarter with a 57-50 edge. The Lopes played well near the basket, scoring 10 of its 19 third-quarter points in the paint.

The fourth quarter started slow, with scoring until the Wildcats drew a shooting foul at the 6:03 mark. Abilene Christian tied the game at 57-57 with five minutes to play before GCU sophomore guard Tiarra Brown scored a quick four points. Brown was the only Lope to score in the fourth quarter until the the 2:28 mark, when graduate forward Jay McChristine found the bucket with a layup.

The game was tied at 67-67 with 1:26 to go and stayed that way until the Wildcats pulled ahead 69-67 lead with 27 seconds left. The ball found the hot hand of Graham, who knocked down a deep 3, which ended up being the dagger with 9.1 seconds.

"My coaches believe in me and they try to put me in the right positions to succeed," Graham said. "I like it. They believe in me. I believe in myself. Every game is kind of just 'feed the hot hand'. Dom got it going, I got in a little bit of foul trouble, but if you're hot, they're going to find you. That's what I like about this team, is every game it could be someone different. It's fun when you play like that."

Powell-Smith took a charge on the other end of the court, putting the possession back in GCU's hands. Two made free throws and a layup off of a Kennedi Shorts steal gave the Lopes the 74-69 win.

"The fact that we're having some basketball savvy there at the end is really exciting because we're just making plays when we need to make plays on both ends," Miller said. "Ja'Mya had a charge that she drew there at the end and AG's hitting some clutch shots for us. We've got players that are finding the open shooters and I think that makes the game simpler. We want to make this game simple and when you play really, really hard, things are going to go your way and good things happen and one of those good things is coming out with a road win."

The Lopes head 90 minutes east to Stephenville, Texas, to take on Tarleton on Saturday at 1 p.m. (Phoenix time).

"It can't be a trap game," Miller said. "We used a lot of emotion. We used a lot of fight, a lot of grit. Now we can't just sit back. Our goal is to get two on the road so we only have half of that goal complete right now. We gotta regroup, refocus, rest our bodies, rest our minds but then come back sharp and with just as much energy and effort."