Bounce-back win locks up CBU offense

Wednesday, February 16

Riverside, Calif.

8 p.m. (MST)

Grand Canyon

California Baptist

2/16/2022 7:34:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Lopes hold Lancers to 35% shooting for 12th straight road victory in series

By: Paul Coro

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – It still takes more than 5,050 "BEAT GCU" T-shirts to do the job at CBU Events Center.

For the third time since meeting as Division I foes, California Baptist went all in on a "BEAT GCU" theme and departed its home with a loss and erroneous T-shirt logos. The Lopes defeated the Lancers 65-60 in a critical bounce-back game Wednesday night.

GCU (18-6, 9-4 WAC) held California Baptist to 29.7% shooting in the second half to make sure that it never relinquished a halftime lead. CBU shot 35% for the game, making it the ninth time that GCU has held an opponent to 35% or less shooting this season. The Lopes rank 12th nationally in field goal percentage defense (38.4%).

"That just gave us an edge," Lopes graduate guard Holland Woods II said of the "BEAT GCU" shirts that CBU distributed to an announced sellout crowd. "Not that we even needed one. We took a tough loss last week, so we just wanted to come back here and respond."

Lopes graduate forward Sean Miller-Moore led the response with his defensive job on Lancers freshman phenom Taran Armstrong, who entered the night with a 7.2 assists average that ranked fourth in the nation. Armstrong did not record his first assist Wednesday night until nine minutes remained in the game. The 6-foot-5 guard also missed 11 of 14 shots while Miller-Moore racked up his first career double-double (13 points, 11 rebounds) just six days after matching his career scoring high at Utah Valley.

Yvan Ouedraogo

"You have to credit our bigs too, especially Yvan (Ouedraogo) was terrific in that ball-screen coverage on him (Armstrong) to make it a guessing game if he was coming or wasn't coming, and then Sean kept pursuing the basketball," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "They didn't give up on plays, which was great to see, especially Sean and Yvan. They finished plays out and kept contesting no matter where the ball was at on the court.

"He (Miller-Moore) has great size. He's really long and he's strong. When you have those characteristics on ball-screen coverage and if he's tough and fights over, he can use his length to make up for some things."

Lopes guards Jovan Blacksher Jr. and Holland Woods II put up identical lines of 16 points, three assists and one turnover, as GCU shot 48% from the field to run its record to 16-0 when it shoots 40% or better this season.

After taking a 33-31 halftime lead, the Lopes emerged with a 6-0 start on their first three second-half possessions to take the energy out of the building. The Lopes maintained a multiple-possession lead throughout the second half and built their largest advantage at 57-45 when Blacksher made a whirling drive against CBU big man Dan Akin with 6:13 to go.

The Lopes needed a couple more clutch moments to cinch the game with a Miller-Moore tip-in and Blacksher and Woods each making 3 of 4 free throws in the final 1:09. It was the improved momentum GCU desired heading into Saturday night's visit from first-place New Mexico State (21-4, 11-2 WAC).

"I thought GCU was really locked in tonight," CBU head coach Rick Croy said. "I expected us to be. We were in stretches, but too erratic."

Coming off one of its worst shooting performances of the season, GCU made half of its shots in the first half but that was offset with eight turnovers on an 18-turnover night (second most of the season). Despite those errors and a hot 8-for-11 shooting start from CBU, the Lopes still led 23-20 until their defense dug in.

Holland Woods II

Woods was more aggressive offensively in the first half than usual, driving for a score on the game's opening possession and shooting on four consecutive possessions later in the half with three makes for a one-man, 7-0 run and a 18-14 GCU lead.

"I just wanted to try to set the tone offensively and defensively," Woods said. "I wanted to give the guys that spark maybe we were missing in that last game. I just wanted to come out and be a senior leader and set the tone."

The Lancers (14-12, 4-9 WAC) still pulled ahead as the Lopes also went cold. CBU led 30-27 on a 3-pointer from reserve Chance Hunter, but GCU responded with back-to-back 3-pointers from Blacksher and reserve junior forward Taeshon Cherry. The Lopes led 33-31 at halftime despite the turnovers because its defense also prompted eight turnovers from the Lancers, who missed 10 of their last 12 shots in the first half.

GCU's improved defensive effort began midway through that first half after Drew took out Blacksher and Woods for allowing catch-and-shoot 3-pointers.

"After that, I thought they did really good," Drew said. "If they (the Lancers) did make 3s, they were really tough ones. I thought those two guys picking up their defensive intensity really helped us."

The Lopes kept CBU to 26.5% shooting for the game's final 28 minutes. The Lancers have posted two of their worst four shooting games of the season against the Lopes, who have kept them to 34.7% and 35.0% shooting in the two wins.

"We were much fresher than we were for that Saturday game," Drew said, referring to a Saturday night 61-60 loss at Dixie State. "Tonight, we saw that energy and it was fun to see it back with our guys."

GCU is not only 3-0 in the teams' Division I era of the series, but the Lopes have won 12 consecutive road games in their series with the Lancers.

In Wednesday's first half, Blacksher also became the fourth member of GCU's 1,000-point club in the program's Division I era, needing less than three seasons to join DeWayne Russell, Joshua Braun and Alessandro Lever. His value goes beyond points, as shown Wednesday when the Lopes were outscored by 11 in the five minutes he rested.

GCU will play four of its final five regular-season games at home, starting with Saturday's 6 p.m. game against New Mexico State. The Lopes beat the Aggies twice at GCU Arena last season but lost to them at Pan American Center three weeks ago despite holding a second-half lead.

"I'm pretty excited," Woods said. "I've been to one of the games when I was younger, watching Carlos Johnson and guys like that. Just seeing the environment and how much the game means to the community, we just want to go out there and get that win."