Road rigors confront GCU with Texas trip

Thursday, Jan. 6 \| 6 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| Edinburg, Texas

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (11-2, 1-0 WAC)	at	UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY VAQUEROS (5-8, 0-1 WAC)

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For the first time this season, Grand Canyon will run onto the floor for warmups Thursday night with hardly a buzz about the team.

The Lopes (11-2, 1-0 WAC) will need to self-charge when they take their show on the road this week for conference games at UT Rio Grande Valley on Thursday and Lamar on Saturday.

With last month's game at Nevada being canceled, GCU has been away from home for three wins and a tight loss at Arizona State this season. It just did not feel like a hostile environment with 200 Havocs students traveling to Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount in November and the Jerry Colangelo Classic feeling like a home environment when the Lopes upended San Francisco last month in downtown Phoenix.

"It'll be a big challenge going on the road and we don't have our Havocs behind us cheering," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "Our guys will definitely have to be more energetic and focused. Any road game is hard, especially a road conference game. It'll be a great challenge to see how we do out on the road."

GCU has played two games since Dec. 11 and began WAC play with a one-game week, leaving another seven-day gap between an 80-63 win against Chicago State and its first trip to UTRGV since Jan. 30, 2020. The Vaqueros (5-8, 0-1 WAC) had their conference opener delayed to Monday, when they lost 86-78 at Sam Houston.

Because UTRGV endured a 10-day stretch without practices, the only part of Monday's game that Drew focused on was the end. That is when the Vaqueros started looking like the team that won 68-50 earlier this season at UT San Antonio, a team GCU beat 74-71 at home, and was tied at Illinois with three minutes remaining of a 94-85 loss.

"It's going to be exciting," GCU junior power forward Yvan Ouedraogo said. "We're going to see what we're made of. Also, it's the start of conference so serious things are starting. We'll have to be focused and play our basketball."

Southern Mississippi transfer Justin Johnson, a 6-foot-6 junior guard, scored 28 at Illinois and it still marked only his third highest-scoring game of the season. Johnson is shooting 53% from the field and 43% on 3-pointers to average 17.4 points per game for first-year UTRGV head coach Matt Figger, who was 76-51 in four seasons as Austin Peay head coach.

"They're big," Figger said of GCU at his weekly press conference. "They play kind of old-school basketball. They're not a fast-tempo team, per se. They play high-low. They play inside."

Lopes guards Jovan Blacksher Jr. and Holland Woods II are combining for a 30.4 points, 6.7 assists and 3.5 steals per game with 43% 3-point shooting. Blacksher has scored in double digits in 17 consecutive games, 13 of which included multiple 3-pointers.

"We've got to make sure they're uncomfortable in their daily habits as far as basketballwise," Figger said of Blacksher and Woods. "We've got to make sure that they don't get clean looks. We've got to make sure that they're not comfortable in pick-and-roll situations."

This week's schedule marks the returns to the WAC routine of playing two teams in three days on road trips. Last season, conference teams met for back-to-back games at one site.

"It's a rhythm," Drew said. "It'll be the first time we've done that so we'll monitor this trip to learn for the next one."

Lope tracks

The Lopes continue to rank in the national top 20 for several categories: 15.5 offensive rebounds per game (second), 25.6% opponent 3-point shooting (fourth), 43.5 rebounds per game (sixth), plus-10.4 rebound margin per game (10th), 37.5% opponent field goal shooting (15th) and 58.2 points allowed per game (16th).
GCU is looking for a marked change in its free throw shooting, which ranks as the nation's 18th worst at 63.6% this season. UTRGV commits the 10th-most fouls per game (20.8) in the nation.
Lamar, where GCU is slated to play Saturday night, forfeited its Thursday night home game with New Mexico State "due to lack of player availability," a Lamar release said. The Cardinals were limited to six players for their Tuesday practice and had 10 players in COVID-19 protocols last week, according to head coach Alvin Brooks. Eight players were available for its Dec. 30 loss at Sam Houston and its Jan. 1 game at Stephen F. Austin was postponed.

Thursday, Jan. 6 | 6 p.m. (Phoenix time) | Edinburg, Texas

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Players Mentioned

Jovan Blacksher Jr.

Yvan Ouedraogo

Holland Woods II

Grand Canyon University Athletics