Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball at Baylor on October 10, 2025 at 2 p.m. (MST)
M Basketball
2 p.m. (MST)
at Baylor
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Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, March 11
Las Vegas, Nev.
6 p.m. PT / 7 p.m. MT
Grand Canyon
70
vs
75
New Mexico State
Aggies end Lopes' WAC tourney repeat bid
3/11/2022 10:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
GCU rally comes too late with too little in 75-70 semifinal loss
LAS VEGAS — No offense to Las Vegas, but this is not a city where Grand Canyon wants to have its farewells to a season goal or a senior class.
The Lopes fought like mad to prevent that from happening after getting down by 12 with seven minutes remaining but ran out of answers for a seasoned top seed, New Mexico State. GCU's WAC Tournament title defense and a five-game winning streak was squelched by a 75-70 loss to the Aggies at Orleans Arena.
In a championship environment with the WAC's largest fan followings, none of the Lopes had played in front of a normal tournament crowd. Last year's title teams flipped last season's results from a GCU three-game sweep to a New Mexico State sweep that ended the Lopes' season at 23-8.
GCU reduced the lead to 71-67 with 2:21 remaining and even got it to 71-69 with 19.5 seconds to go but ended the night in a somber locker room for seniors Holland Woods II, Sean Miller-Moore and Raef Gerdes.
"What I'm going to remember about this night is what we just had in the locker room with our seniors — the tears and the words that were said in there," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "Man, it was really impactful. We've got a great group of guys. Even though they've been here a short amount of time, they've really embraced the GCU culture and really elevated our program in a short amount of time."
Following a 19-point second half on Thursday night, Woods kept his Lopes in the game with a 21-point first half on Friday night and played all 40 minutes. But GCU spent the first 14 minutes of the second half trailing by at least nine points before making one last surge of desperate desire with a defensive change.
GCU scored on three consecutive possessions for the first time in the second half to get within seven and took the lead down to four twice, when sophomore power forward Gabe McGlothan made a 3-pointer with 3:08 to go and when Aggies senior Johnny McCants fouled out with 2:21 to go and McGlothan's free throws capped his 17-point, seven-rebound game.
"It was the will to win, battling for our brothers," McGlothan said.
The New Mexico State lead remained at 71-67 for the next two minutes as the Lopes had a layup blocked and missed four 3-point tries before guard Chance McMilllian made a slam follow to cut the lead to two with 19.5 seconds remaining. GCU was outrebounded in the first two meetings but grabbed 19 offensive rebounds, an Aggie opponent season high with sophomore power forward Yvan Ouedraogo grabbing four of them.
"I'm proud of our guys," Drew said. "We could've lost a lot much bigger, but there's was so much fight in us. We came back multiple times. We cut it to two with 19 seconds left. I wish there was two more minutes left in the game."
The Aggies (25-6) made their free throws from there, ending a 16-for-22 game at the charity stripe to seal the victory.
"A lot of credit has to go to the GCU coaching staff and players," New Mexico State head coach Chris Jans said. "They were resilient. They kept competing."
New Mexico State shot 49% from the field with WAC Player of the Year Teddy Allen scoring 23, even though Allen did not get a field goal attempt for the game's final 10 minutes with McMillian mostly defending and denying him. Allen sparked the Aggies with a 15-point first half and went 10 for 10 at the free-throw line.
Allen had gone 6 for 28 from 3-point range in the previous four games but made three 3-pointers in the first half while backcourt mate Sir'Jabari Rice, a 32.9% 3-point shooter, went 3 for 3.
"This moment was for us and obviously the guys asked for a bit more from me, Teddy and Johnny and we stepped up," Rice said.
The early action matched the arena tension with a 10-10 game until the Aggies went on a 14-3 run that started with 3s and ended with the Lopes defense breaking down to surrender dunks.
GCU's defense settled into a stretch in which it held New Mexico State to 1-of-7 shooting and two Aggies turnovers over five minutes, but the Lopes could not get a consistent scoring partner for Woods.
Needing 40 points to reach the 2,000-point mark for his career, Woods took care of most of that in a 21-point first half that kept the Lopes afloat amid New Mexico State's offensive barrage with 55.6% first-half shooting. Woods finished with 23 after New Mexico State limited his second-half touches with extra defenders.
"I wanted to continue to play through our system," Woods said. "We won a lot of games that way. They're a good defensive team. I got loose a little bit and was able to hit some shots early. That's been the joy of this team this entire season, playing with this team. You got guys like Gabe and Jovan who have stepped up all year. It's not a one-man show here."
Despite trailing by as much as 11 in the first half, GCU closed the lead to 33-31 after a Miller-Moore follow slam and a McGlothan backdoor slam. But the Aggies' highlight reel resumed with a 4-point play by Rice and an alleyoop pass from Allen to guard Mario McKinney Jr. that led to a 46-37 halftime lead.
Ultimately, that experienced length and strength made the difference for New Mexico State. Allen finished with 25 points and six assists while Rice added 21 points and four assists to end the Lopes' repeat bid.
"We had a lot of new guys in new roles," Drew said. "It was a process to get guys to play together and blend. In the last six games, I thought the blending got even better.
"The story of college basketball is old. You want to be old. They've got a lot of 23-year-olds on their team. Us, not so many. We have seven of our top nine guys back for next year. That's a great starting point."
With thousands on hand because of both teams' factions, Drew called it a championship environment that the championship game will not be able to match.
"Our crowd is spectacular," Drew said. "I thank all the Lopes fans for being here and our students that came out. This was a championship atmosphere tonight and New Mexico State knew it too. From how they played their previous games to how they played tonight, this was a championship game for them too."
The Lopes fought like mad to prevent that from happening after getting down by 12 with seven minutes remaining but ran out of answers for a seasoned top seed, New Mexico State. GCU's WAC Tournament title defense and a five-game winning streak was squelched by a 75-70 loss to the Aggies at Orleans Arena.
In a championship environment with the WAC's largest fan followings, none of the Lopes had played in front of a normal tournament crowd. Last year's title teams flipped last season's results from a GCU three-game sweep to a New Mexico State sweep that ended the Lopes' season at 23-8.
GCU reduced the lead to 71-67 with 2:21 remaining and even got it to 71-69 with 19.5 seconds to go but ended the night in a somber locker room for seniors Holland Woods II, Sean Miller-Moore and Raef Gerdes."What I'm going to remember about this night is what we just had in the locker room with our seniors — the tears and the words that were said in there," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "Man, it was really impactful. We've got a great group of guys. Even though they've been here a short amount of time, they've really embraced the GCU culture and really elevated our program in a short amount of time."
Following a 19-point second half on Thursday night, Woods kept his Lopes in the game with a 21-point first half on Friday night and played all 40 minutes. But GCU spent the first 14 minutes of the second half trailing by at least nine points before making one last surge of desperate desire with a defensive change.
GCU scored on three consecutive possessions for the first time in the second half to get within seven and took the lead down to four twice, when sophomore power forward Gabe McGlothan made a 3-pointer with 3:08 to go and when Aggies senior Johnny McCants fouled out with 2:21 to go and McGlothan's free throws capped his 17-point, seven-rebound game.
"It was the will to win, battling for our brothers," McGlothan said.
The New Mexico State lead remained at 71-67 for the next two minutes as the Lopes had a layup blocked and missed four 3-point tries before guard Chance McMilllian made a slam follow to cut the lead to two with 19.5 seconds remaining. GCU was outrebounded in the first two meetings but grabbed 19 offensive rebounds, an Aggie opponent season high with sophomore power forward Yvan Ouedraogo grabbing four of them.
"I'm proud of our guys," Drew said. "We could've lost a lot much bigger, but there's was so much fight in us. We came back multiple times. We cut it to two with 19 seconds left. I wish there was two more minutes left in the game."The Aggies (25-6) made their free throws from there, ending a 16-for-22 game at the charity stripe to seal the victory.
"A lot of credit has to go to the GCU coaching staff and players," New Mexico State head coach Chris Jans said. "They were resilient. They kept competing."
New Mexico State shot 49% from the field with WAC Player of the Year Teddy Allen scoring 23, even though Allen did not get a field goal attempt for the game's final 10 minutes with McMillian mostly defending and denying him. Allen sparked the Aggies with a 15-point first half and went 10 for 10 at the free-throw line.
Allen had gone 6 for 28 from 3-point range in the previous four games but made three 3-pointers in the first half while backcourt mate Sir'Jabari Rice, a 32.9% 3-point shooter, went 3 for 3.
"This moment was for us and obviously the guys asked for a bit more from me, Teddy and Johnny and we stepped up," Rice said.
The early action matched the arena tension with a 10-10 game until the Aggies went on a 14-3 run that started with 3s and ended with the Lopes defense breaking down to surrender dunks.
GCU's defense settled into a stretch in which it held New Mexico State to 1-of-7 shooting and two Aggies turnovers over five minutes, but the Lopes could not get a consistent scoring partner for Woods.
Needing 40 points to reach the 2,000-point mark for his career, Woods took care of most of that in a 21-point first half that kept the Lopes afloat amid New Mexico State's offensive barrage with 55.6% first-half shooting. Woods finished with 23 after New Mexico State limited his second-half touches with extra defenders."I wanted to continue to play through our system," Woods said. "We won a lot of games that way. They're a good defensive team. I got loose a little bit and was able to hit some shots early. That's been the joy of this team this entire season, playing with this team. You got guys like Gabe and Jovan who have stepped up all year. It's not a one-man show here."
Despite trailing by as much as 11 in the first half, GCU closed the lead to 33-31 after a Miller-Moore follow slam and a McGlothan backdoor slam. But the Aggies' highlight reel resumed with a 4-point play by Rice and an alleyoop pass from Allen to guard Mario McKinney Jr. that led to a 46-37 halftime lead.
Ultimately, that experienced length and strength made the difference for New Mexico State. Allen finished with 25 points and six assists while Rice added 21 points and four assists to end the Lopes' repeat bid.
"We had a lot of new guys in new roles," Drew said. "It was a process to get guys to play together and blend. In the last six games, I thought the blending got even better.
"The story of college basketball is old. You want to be old. They've got a lot of 23-year-olds on their team. Us, not so many. We have seven of our top nine guys back for next year. That's a great starting point."
With thousands on hand because of both teams' factions, Drew called it a championship environment that the championship game will not be able to match.
"Our crowd is spectacular," Drew said. "I thank all the Lopes fans for being here and our students that came out. This was a championship atmosphere tonight and New Mexico State knew it too. From how they played their previous games to how they played tonight, this was a championship game for them too."
Players Mentioned
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