Aggies seek revenge; Lopes want repeat

Saturday, Jan. 29 \| 7 p.m. \| Pan American Center \| Las Cruces, N.M.

	NEW MEXICO STATE AGGIES (16-3, 6-1 WAC)	vs.	GRAND CANYON LOPES (14-4, 5-2 WAC)

WATCH: ESPN+ \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic \| STATS: View

New Mexico State has not lost a conference home game since 2017.

But Lope Nation feels the sting of something longer – never.

As much as Grand Canyon turned pain to joy last season with a regular-season home sweep and a WAC Tournament championship victory against the Aggies, a hole remains for the Lopes leaving Las Cruces with a win.

Another ferocious five-figure fan turnout is expected to greet GCU at 7 p.m. Saturday at New Mexico State, where the preseason WAC favorites want a win for the rivalry and the recovery. The Aggies (16-3, 6-1 WAC) and Lopes (14-4, 5-2 WAC) are in third and fourth place, respectively, after road losses last week in a deeper conference race.

"It's a hostile environment," GCU junior power forward Gabe McGlothan said of Pan American Center, where 13,690 fans attended the Lopes' last visit in 2020. "You go in there and you're fighting a fight with a crowd that is willing to fight with them. You have to go in there with toughness. We all have to have each other's back. It's a game about togetherness and toughness. That's two things that I know our guys can bring."

GCU will attempt to snap New Mexico State's 28-game winning streak in conference home games after losing at Stephen F. Austin without head coach Bryce Drew and on a buzzer-shot miss at Sam Houston last week.

The game will pit the teams' shared strengths. The Lopes lead the conference for opponent field goal percentage (38.2%) and rebound margin (plus-8.8) with Aggies right behind them at 39.7% opponent shooting and a plus-7.4 rebound edge per game.

"They're bigger and tougher and really physical," Drew said. "They've been spectacular at home."

New Mexico State returns former All-WAC first-team guard Sir'Jabari Rice and conference shot-blocking leader Johnny McCants, but has received an offensive jolt with the transfer of Phoenix native Teddy Allen. The 6-foot-6 junior guard is making the most of his fifth college stop (West Virginia, Wichita State, Western Nebraska Community College and Nebraska) by leading the team in points per game (18.1) and rebounds per game (6.9) with elite free throw shooting (87%). He matched his career high of 41 two weeks ago against Abilene Christian.

GCU guards Jovan Blacksher Jr. and Holland Woods II saw Allen's game growing up in Phoenix and Lopes junior power forward Yvan Ouedraogo enjoyed it last season as Allen's Nebraska teammate.

"We've been talking this whole season and he told me that the real game is waiting for me, so it's going to be pretty cool to be on the court with him," Ouedraogo said. "He said it's going to be a battle. Now, it's war. We have to forget about the friendship.

"He's fearless on the court. He really doesn't care if he misses a shot. He doesn't care about the situation. He's going to try to get a bucket every time. He just plays relentless on every possession. He's got a big heart."

Jovan Blacksher Jr.

Blacksher is the only GCU scholarship player with game experience at New Mexico State, where the Lopes lost 72-52 two years ago. Prior to that, the Lopes had nightmarish visits with McCants' half-court buzzer shot in 2019 and Alessandro Lever fouling out with 16 minutes remaining in a close 2018 loss.

"We know they're going to punch us," Blacksher said. "We've got to punch back.

"If this was a different team, we'd want to come back better than we were last week and improve. With two losses, we want to come back stronger."

But it does not take sour Las Cruces memories or sweet Las Vegas reflections to know how valuable this game is for the standings and the fans, many of whom will be coming by bus from GCU.

"Growing up here, even back when things weren't as big as they are here, it was a big game when it was almost meaningless in the standings," said Woods, a Glendale Apollo graduate before playing at Portland State and Arizona State. "This rivalry has grown. Seeing the fans clapping back and forth on Twitter, you can tell this game really means a lot to both universities. It's going to be a lot of fun. Being a player, you live for games like this.

"I also found out that we've never won there, so we want to go change that."

Those sentiments are carried by the GCU veterans beyond Blacksher. McGlothan was with the team on the last New Mexico State visit in 2020 but sat out the season as a transfer.

The Aggies will be highly motivated after losing three games to the Lopes last season by an average of 12 points.

"It's about grit," McGlothan said. "It's about who wants it more. If you want to talk about a dogfight, this is a dogfight. They remember what we did to them last year three times and the last one being in the championship, so they're going to come at us. We've got to hold our ground and fight back. I'm excited. I hope these guys are getting the understanding of that. This week of practice has been tough to get that same undertone."

Because New Mexico State has existing regional rivalries with New Mexico and UTEP, there is contention among Aggies fans about whether to call GCU-NMSU a rivalry. Aggies head coach Chris Jans and McCants have called it a rivalry in the past and Rice reiterated that this week on a Las Cruces Sun-News podcast.

"It's just always more intense when we play them so I'd call it a rivalry game," Rice told the Sun-News.

"There's nothing that compares to that just because when we play them there (at GCU), it's just an atmosphere that you can't compare to. And when they play us here (at NMSU), our fans always sell it out. It's a different type of atmosphere when we play them."

Lope tracks

GCU is the only current WAC team to win three consecutive games against New Mexico State and could become the only one to do it four times in a row since the Aggies entered the conference in 2005.
The game will be shown live on ESPN+ but also will replay on Bally Sports Arizona at 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
Blacksher is the only player in the nation averaging at least 17.0 points and 4.0 assists with 45% 3-point shooting.
The past three WAC Tournament championship games pitted GCU and New Mexico State.
The Aggies are 83-4 in home conference games since 2009-10.

Saturday, Jan. 29 | 7 p.m. | Pan American Center | Las Cruces, N.M.

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Players Mentioned

Jovan Blacksher Jr.

Alessandro Lever

Gabe McGlothan

Yvan Ouedraogo

Holland Woods II

Grand Canyon University Athletics