Bounce-back scenario awaits at CBU

Wednesday, Feb.16 \| 8 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| CBU Events Center \| Riverside, Calif.

	CALIFORNIA BAPTIST LANCERS (14-11, 4-8 WAC)	vs.	GRAND CANYON LOPES (17-6, 8-4 WAC)

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Grand Canyon head coach Bryce Drew talks about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for games.

If there was not enough fire burning from within about allowing a golden opportunity to escape Saturday, the Lopes were

surrounded by a scene to incite incentive Tuesday night. For GCU's third consecutive visit, California Baptist welcomed the Lopes to their game-eve practice with "BEAT GCU" shirts for their fans draped over every seat.

The Lopes made the first two versions of the shirts obsolete when they won their previous two visits in the Lancers' Division I transition. This time, GCU enters the 5,050-seat, 5-year-old CBU Events Center stinging from a 61-60 Saturday defeat to Dixie State. A win could have pulled the Lopes within a game of the WAC leaders with New Mexico State coming to GCU Arena on Saturday night, but the Lopes now need Wednesday night to right the ship.

"We've got to bring our own energy," GCU sophomore point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. said. "We've got to hit first and put the pressure on offensively and defensively for 40 minutes. It's what we need to do to get back on track, but our standards are to always have high energy and play hard.

"Taking those losses, we feel like that's where we lacked so that's what we have to do to get back to winning and having the season we want to have."

After Wednesday, GCU plays four of its final five regular-season games at home. The Lopes (17-6, 8-4 WAC) are tied for fourth place with the top four seeds getting a bye into the WAC Tournament quarterfinals, where they would need to win three games in three nights for the title. The top two seeds vault into the semifinals.

"The biggest goal is you want to come out and you never want those to happen, but you want to learn so hopefully it never happens again," Drew said of losing with 33% shooting on Saturday. "A lot of conversations, a lot of film, a lot of open dialogue to try to learn from it. You don't just move on. You learn from it and then you move on. We've had a good couple days of growth within our program so hopefully it's going to help us for the future."

The Lopes and Lancers meet 11 days after GCU beat CBU 56-50 at home despite its leading scorers, Blacksher and graduate Holland Woods II going 6 for 27 from the field combined. The starting guards are coming off 6-for-30 combined shooting in Saturday's loss.

"A game that we should've played significantly better than what we did," Drew said.

Lope tracks

CBU ranks ninth in the nation for assists with 17.2 per game. Freshman 6-foot-5 point guard Taran Armstrong, a projected NBA first-round pick to some, averages 7.2 assists to tie for third nationally. In the game at GCU, Armstrong made 2 of 10 shots with four assists in his second game back from illness.
The Lopes have won 11 consecutive trips to Riverside with the programs meeting mostly in their Division II eras, when CBU's last series home win came in 1976. GCU leads the overall Division I series 5-2.
GCU ranks second nationally in opponent 3-point percentage at 26.1%, just a shade behind leader UC Irvine (26.0%).
Lopes power forward Yvan Ouedraogo has posted consecutive double-digit rebounding games (12 at Utah Valley and 10 at Dixie State) for the first time in the Nebraska transfer's three-year collegiate career.
GCU is the top WAC team in offensive rebounding percentage (36.5%), going against a CBU team that averages the second-most defensive rebounds (27.9) in the conference.
Lancers 6-foot-9 power forward Dan Akin, a graduate transfer from UMBC, ranks second in the WAC for rebounds per game (8.2), third for blocked shots per game (1.2) and fourth for field goal percentage (57.4%). Akin went 2 for 8 with five rebounds in the teams' first meeting.

Wednesday, Feb.16 | 8 p.m. (Phoenix time) | CBU Events Center | Riverside, Calif.

Lope tracks

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Players Mentioned

Jovan Blacksher Jr.

Yvan Ouedraogo

Holland Woods II

Grand Canyon University Athletics