Harrison breaks out in GCU blowout win

Friday, November 18

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

3-1

Grambling State

2-1

Grambling

Grand Canyon

11/18/2022 10:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

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Lopes get offense on track vs. Grambling State with guard's 21-point 1st half

By: Paul Coro

Grand Canyon came into Friday night's game with a lengthy to-do list, but the Lopes checked off all the items before the first half ended.

Better tempo ... zoom. Defensive consistency ... lockdown. And Ray Harrison scoring ... emphatically yes.

GCU overachieved on goals to wipe them out, along with Grambling State. The Lopes used a 21-point first half from Harrison, the previously slumping sophomore guard, to take a 42-15 halftime lead that rolled into an 81-48 bounce-back blowout of a Tigers team that beat Colorado last weekend to receive top-25 votes.

Phoenix, AZ. Nov. 18, 2022: Grand Canyon trounces Grambling 81-48 at GCU Arena.

Phoenix, AZ. Nov. 18, 2022: Grand Canyon trounces Grambling 81-48 at GCU Arena.

When the Lopes (3-1) needed anybody to come along with Jovan Blacksher Jr. after the first three games, everyone nearly did Friday night at sold-out GCU Arena. The Lopes blew out a quality visitor without Blacksher making a shot for the first time in his four-year career, although he set GCU's defensive tone with a career-high and program Division I-era record seven steals.

The Lopes shut out the Tigers for the first five minutes and led 29-5 with less than five minutes to go in the half against a team that scored 83 on Colorado six nights earlier. Harrison outscored Grambling 21-15 in the first half, when the Lopes built a 27-point halftime lead defensively with the Tigers' 20.7% shooting and 13 turnovers.

After going 0 for 11 on 3s with a 5.3 scoring average in his first three GCU games, Harrison got started with a driving score Friday before making the Presbyterian transfer's first 3 lifted the weight off his shooting shoulder. He matched a career high with five 3-pointers, all of which came in the first half on six tries.

"It was important to me just because I feel like I haven't been able to show them who I really am," Harrison said of the Lopes fans. "It was good to get out there and show them what I do. I was almost like a prisoner of my own mind. At the end of the day, we play this game, but we're living a real life at the same time. So there's stuff off the court that can tend to bog you down. I just focused on having a clear mind tonight and it helped."

Harrison finished with 25 points, which would have been his fourth-highest scoring game last season. It came in 19 minutes on 9-of-11 shooting, including drives and fastbreaks.

"This is the guy that we've seen for a while in practice," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "It was so nice that he got those first couple baskets down, and it snowballed for him. I mean 9 for 11, that's spectacular. Definitely a breakout game for Ray at GCU."

Gabe McGlothan

Harrison was not alone in the turnaround. Lopes junior guard Josh Baker, coming off illness that sidelined him for Saturday's loss and dropped his weight, received his first GCU start and responded with 10 points, three steals and a team-high six assists. Junior power forward Gabe McGlothan was more aggressive driving to the rim and finished with 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Lopes junior center Yvan Ouedraogo did not take a shot but defended Grambling's top player, former top-60 recruit Carter'are Gordon, who had two points until the final 1:12 of the first half. Ouedraogo was plus-31 in his 18 minutes, meaning GCU was plus-2 in his 22 minutes on the bench.

"(Gordon) is an excellent player and Yvan was terrific on defense against him," Drew said. "You look and say, 'One point, how did he contribute?' But he solidified our defense and protected us in so many ways and got his hands on a lot of balls in the paint."

Grambling never made it a contest in the second half either. Baker showed his versatile game by setting up teammates, penetrating and scoring on a step-through move, a drive and a 3 during a run that opened GCU's largest lead at 60-24 with 13:15 to go.

"That's my boy," Harrison said of Baker, the Phoenix native who transferred from UNLV this summer. "I love playing with that dude. He's been dealing with some things off the court as well. I'm so happy to see him pull through and do what we do."

Phoenix, AZ. Nov. 18, 2022: Grand Canyon trounces Grambling 81-48 at GCU Arena.

The three-guard starting lineup with Baker gave the Lopes another playmaker alongside Blacksher and Harrison.

Blacksher also made plays defensively, turning the poked loose balls and pressured dribbles of previous games into stat-column steals. Blacksher's seven steals in 20 minutes topped his previous career high of five, which he did twice, including against Grambling two years ago.

"We knew we had to come out and put on a show, bring intensity," Blacksher said. "Don't get our energy from being hit in the face. Punch first. This week, we were talking about being in the gaps, so I just wanted to get my hands on more balls and get us in transition."

The Lopes scored once in transition during Saturday's loss at Nevada but had 11 fastbreak points in Friday's first half. The effort followed a week in which Baker and redshirt freshman Kobe Knox were coming off missing Saturday's game with illness before Ouedraogo and sophomore guard Chance McMillian were out sick for most of this week's practices.

Despite that, GCU had its best start of the season with a 20-3 lead after about nine minutes.

"I really credit our guys for overcoming adversity in the last week in practices with how many guys weren't there and really coming out playing aggressive," Drew said. "That's a great sign of good maturity and a good mindset.

"I think our whole team was excited for Ray. They know how well he's played. When they saw him make a couple of shots, they were like, 'Here we go, we've got Ray on board with us.' And other guys just kept following. It will be really fun when Jovan has a normal Jovan day with these other guards and how they played today."

Baker was the only Lopes player to log at least 20 minutes in a dominant, deep effort that included seven playmakers accounting for 14 made 3-pointers, which matched the program's second-highest total of its Division I era. Nobody needed it more than Harrison, who put in extra work all week from shooting on an off-day Monday to getting onto his new home court two hours before tipoff Friday.

"I appreciate my teammates and my coaches so much, just because they believed in me in times when I didn't believe in myself as much as I should have," Harrison said. "This place is electric. I still get anxious before every game even though I've played three games here. There's nothing like it. This atmosphere is crazy."