Formula to top-4 seed requires finale win

Saturday, March 5

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Dixie State

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Photo by: Skyler Coblentz

3/4/2022 11:27:00 AM | Men's Basketball

GCU Notes Dixie Notes

GCU needs home win vs. Dixie State, New Mexico State home win vs. Utah Valley

By: Paul Coro

Saturday, March 5 \| 6 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| GCU Arena

	DIXIE STATE TRAILBLAZERS (13-17, 6-11 WAC)	at	GRAND CANYON LOPES (21-7, 12-5 WAC)

WATCH: ESPN+ \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic \| STATS: View

After nine weeks of WAC action and 61 conference games, Grand Canyon's WAC Tournament seed relies on one night and two games.

If the Lopes win on Senior Night against Dixie State, New Mexico State defeats Utah Valley at home and Stephen F. Austin wins at UT Rio Grande Valley on Saturday night, GCU would rise to at least the No. 4 seed (with a slight chance at No. 3) and receive a bye into the WAC Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday night in Las Vegas.

Even though GCU (21-7, 12-5 WAC) is only a game out of the conference's three-way tie for first place, a Lopes loss would send them to an opening WAC Tournament game on Wednesday and a need to win four games in four nights to defend their tournament title.

GCU would get the nod over Sam Houston because a WAC tiebreaker rule throws out the teams' records against New Mexico State because the Lopes and Bearkats did not play the Aggies the same number of times. That would move the tiebreaker to how the teams played Seattle, which GCU beat and Sam Houston did not in one meeting each.

Take away the tournament scenarios and GCU does not lack for motivation – revenge for its regretful loss at Dixie State, completing a 15-2 home season and sending out Raef Gerdes, Sean Miller-Moore and Holland Woods II as winners on their Senior Night.

"We know what we did," Woods said. "We know we dropped a few early on that we should have had, but people always say you want to play your best basketball in March. That's what we're trying to do, build our momentum going into the tournament."

GCU is trending that way with three consecutive double-digit wins in which opponents have shot 37.3% and the Lopes offense went from shooting 50% from 3-point range in consecutive games for the first time to committing a season-low six turnovers in Thursday night's win against Utah Valley.

But a roll of great basketball did not carry into the last GCU meeting with Dixie State. The Lopes followed a 52-point second half and win at Utah Valley with a loss two nights later for Dixie State's best win of its two-year Division I era.

GCU also is in the odd position of pulling for New Mexico State (23-6, 13-4 WAC) to snap a two-game skid Saturday night against Utah Valley (19-10, 10-7 WAC), which slipped to 6-8 on the road this season with Thursday's loss at GCU.

"We've gone to the motto of control what we can control and let's try to keep playing good basketball," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "I'm really pleased that this is three in a row and hopefully we can make it four in a row on Saturday."

Dixie State (13-17, 6-11 WAC) beat GCU 61-60 on Feb. 12 despite only shooting 38.3% because the Lopes shot worse – 32.9%. GCU still took a final-minute lead, but Trailblazers power forward and leading scorer Hunter Schofield converted an and-one post-up with 17.6 seconds for what proved to be the game-winner.

The Lopes were denied a four-game winning streak by Dixie State once but get another chance at a four-game streak heading into the WAC Tournament.

"It would be tremendous," Drew said. "You take that (0-3 road) stretch out and we've been really solid and consistent all year."

Lope tracks

Woods is one of five active Division I players with at least 1,900 career points and 600 career assists. His 646 assists rank ninth for active players and his 1,923 points ranks 26th.
GCU sophomore power forward Gabe McGlothan is coming off consecutive double-doubles for the first time since February 2019, when he played for Southeast Missouri State.
This game will be Dixie State's last basketball competition by that name. The university will be known as Utah Tech starting next fall.
A 15th home win would be GCU's most since the 2017-18 season.
The Lopes are 16-0 when scoring 67 or more points.
New Mexico State (No. 90) and GCU (No. 91) have the highest NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings in the WAC.
After the past two opponents went 4 for 43 on 3-pointers, the Lopes rank third in the country for lowest opponent 3-point percentage (26.8%).