Grit, grind guide GCU to win at Wyoming

Saturday, December 3

Laramie, Wyo. / Arena-Auditorium

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

7-2,0-0WAC

Wyoming

3-5,0-0Mountain West

Grand Canyon

Wyoming

12/3/2022 1:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

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Lopes hold Cowboys to 35% shooting for 4th consecutive victory

By: Paul Coro

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Instead of giving in to Division I's highest altitude, Grand Canyon came to Wyoming with attitude.

Rather than miss their best player, the Lopes defense made the Cowboys miss their shots.

GCU went through a winter obstacle course of freezing weather, injury upon injury and lost leads before rising to the 7,220-foot setting at Wyoming's Arena-Auditorium to hit the finish line first in a 66-58 win.

The Lopes played without their leader, point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr., but summoned his toughness to grind out a gritty victory where the Cowboys were 14-1 last season as a NCAA tournament team.

GCU (7-2) held an opponent to less than 40% shooting for the seventh time in nine games this season and also overcame an in-game shoulder injury to junior guard Josh Baker, who made a gutty return to be part of a win-securing, 17-2 run.

"It was great to see the response," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "What happens when that adversity hits? I was ju

st telling our coaches just how proud of the team I was – our response and the togetherness to work with each other and figure things out. It was really neat to see."

GCU led for most of the first half but had to cling to a 31-30 halftime lead before Wyoming scored on the first four possessions of the second half to surge ahead 38-34. The Lopes took and lost the lead twice more before GCU sophomore guard Chance McMillian started the 17-2 run with a deep 3-pointer before Baker found junior Gabe McGlothan for a slam.

"At that point, are our guys going to fold or are they going to come together and get it back?" Drew said. "Chance hit a huge 3 for us. When he hit it, you could see us get some more energy in us. Josh Baker coming back in with that (injured) shoulder, that was huge. If he doesn't return, it would've been really hard. He gave us more stability and ball-handling, which we needed."

The Lopes coaches were creative defensively with how to approach Wyoming 6-foot-7 star guard Hunter Maldonado, who led the Cowboys' win at GCU Arena last season. GCU gave Maldonado various looks and guarded him mostly with its athletic big men, including junior power Yvan Ouedraogo, who doubled his career high with four steals.

Maldonado made 4 of 12 shots and committed five turnovers on Saturday, when injuries to Noah Reynolds and Brendan Wetzel added to Graham Ike being out for the Cowboys.

"We wanted our guys to play with a lot of heart and together," Drew said. "We really helped each other out there. We communicated well and we were out there for each other."

GCU won a game with only one offensive rebound for the first time in its 10-year Division I era, but it stopped Wyoming from feasting on second chances after eight of the Cowboys' first 15 points came that way. Wyoming made one second-chance bucket over the game's final 30 minutes with Ouedraogo, McGlothan and graduate forward Noah Baumann each grabbing a team-high five boards.

The Lopes shot 46% from the field sophomore guard Ray Harrison scoring 21, including six at the free throw line. GCU made 16 of 17 free throws with another six coming from Baker, who played 32 minutes with many of the late ones in pain after returning from a shoulder injury.

"I didn't want to leave my guys hanging," Baker said. "If I truly can't play, I won't play. But if I can get back in there, I was going to play left-handed if I had to. I had to fight through that one.

"This win actually shows the character of our team without our biggest player, Jovan. Ray and Gabe stepped up and made bigtime plays. It shows our grit, that we come out and fight every time we play."

With GCU still only leading 54-52 and 6:18 remaining in the game, Harrison read McGlothan making an impromptu baseline backdoor cut and delivered a bounce pass to him for a reverse layup. Moments later, Harrison also bailed his team out with a left-wing 3 that beat the shot clock for a 59-52 lead.

"Our approach on the road and mentality has shifted for the better," Harrison said. "We come into these games with more of an aggressive mindset and I feel like it helps us."

The Lopes have won the first two games of what Drew called the toughest five-game stretch in GCU history. They return to GCU Arena on Wednesday to play Loyola Marymount (6-3) before facing North Texas (5-2) in the Jerry Colangelo Classic on Dec. 10 at Footprint Center and playing Pepperdine (4-2) at home on Dec. 17.

They hope to get back Blacksher, who sprained his ankle in the Tuesday win against Alcorn State. He had started every game of his first three GCU seasons.

"We definitely missed him," Drew said of Blacksher. "We'll be happy to get him back when he's healthy. Our guys really saw this opportunity to show we can play better on the road than what we did at Nevada and take a step up against a really good team in the Mountain West. I thought our guys had a great determination throughout this whole game."