Win streak, home revelry go on national display

Saturday, Jan. 13 \| 7 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| GCU Arena

	TARLETON TEXANS (8-10, 3-2 WAC)	at	GRAND CANYON LOPES (13-2, 4-0 WAC)

WATCH: ESPNU \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic \| STATS: View

Each first GCU Arena basketball experience leaves a fan impressed.

With an ESPN network audience broadcasting a Grand Canyon home game for the first time Saturday night, GCU wants the ESPNU viewing audience to come away with another glowing impression of "The Biggest Party in College Basketball" and an equally bright one of its defending WAC title team.

The Lopes (13-2, 4-0 WAC) put a six-game winning streak on the line against Tarleton (8-10, 3-2 WAC), a Billy Gillispie-coached team that raised conference eyebrows on Nov. 29. The Texans pulled within two points of then-No. 1 Gonzaga with 5:34 remaining during a loss in Spokane, Washington, and pulled off an overtime home upset of Stephen F. Austin last Saturday.

"It's a big game as far as being televised, but we keep everybody level-headed," GCU junior point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. said "It's a regular game. We have to go in there, execute our plays and come out with a victory. A lot more people are watching, so we should bring our A game."

GCU is coming off its best two shooting performances of the season, 58% and 63%, to match its greatest Division I-era start and move to the top of the WAC with New Mexico State, which beat Tarleton 73-57 on Thursday night.

"The Havocs are unbelievable every night for us, so we know how sensational they are," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "Really looking forward to the opportunity for the whole country to see how tremendous GCU is and our Havocs. I know our guys will be really excited to play."

A difficult road venue is not new to the Texans, who played one of the nation's toughest nonconference schedules with stops at Stanford, Kansas, Wichita State, Michigan and Gonzaga. They are 7-1 at home and 1-9 on the road in the second season as a Division I program and under Gillispie, a former head coach at UTEP, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Texas Tech.

"They have another really good team this year," Gillispie said of the Lopes on his weekly radio show. "We'll respect any crowd we go to, but it's not going to be any tougher than Gonzaga or Kansas or some of the places we've been."

GCU won Thursday for the fourth time this season when it had a gap of at least a week between games. Saturday's situation is a customary conference turnaround but new for GCU recently, when it has played just three games since Dec. 19.

"GCU wasn't that well-known at first and now we're on ESPNU," Lopes junior forward Taeshon Cherry said. "The way that Coach Drew has changed this program and changed everything about the culture and how we play is great. I love the culture we have here and I think it's going to be fun on Saturday.

"We're going to play scrappy and we're going to play defense. That defense leads into our offense. The main thing we want to show is we're hungry and we can be a national team."

Cherry's season-best 16-point effort came in 16 minutes of action on Thursday night, including a run of 12 consecutive Lopes points on hot perimeter shooting for a 71-51 lead.

When Cherry was getting a breather Thursday night, the Havocs chanted his name for Drew to reinsert him.

"Man, it's crazy," Cherry said of the GCU students. "I ain't ever had that. For me to have that is just crazy to me. I'm so blessed to be here and be in this position. I just thank God every time I hear that because it's a blessing to be here.

"I've played in a lot of big games and in front of a lot of crowds and I've never seen a crowd like this. Every night, it's crazy. They bring a lot of energy. They're the sixth man for us. They give us a lot of energy and I think it's hard for a lot of teams to play here and get wins."

Lope tracks

With Thursday's win, GCU climbed 18 spots in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings to No. 66. The WAC's next highest ranked team is New Mexico State at No. 77 among 358 Division I teams.
Blacksher is one of four players in the nation averaging at least 16 points, four assists and two steals this season. The others are Washington's Terrell Brown, Hofstra's Zach Cooks and Seattle U's Darrion Trammell.
GCU ranks in the top 10 nationally for offensive rebounds per game (fourth, 14.7), opponent 3-point shooting (fourth, 26.2%), rebounds per game (fifth, 42.5) and rebound margin (sixth, 10.5).
The Lopes are one of 22 teams nationally to win more than 86% of their games this season.
Tarleton seniors Montre Gipson (15.3) and Tahj Small (14.7) average 30 points per game.
The Texans are the WAC leaders for free throw percentage (75.5%) and rank second for turnover margin (plus-4.6) with 8.5 steals per game.
The ESPNU crew will be play-by-play announcer Roxy Bernstein and analyst Adrian Branch.

Saturday, Jan. 13 | 7 p.m. (Phoenix time) | GCU Arena

Lope tracks

Players Mentioned

Jovan Blacksher Jr.

Taeshon Cherry

Grand Canyon University Athletics