Lopes climb out of hole but lose at CBU

Saturday, January 14

Riverside, Calif. / CBU Events Center

8 p.m. (MST)

Grand Canyon

12-6,3-2WAC

California Baptist

11-8,3-3WAC

Grand Canyon

California Baptist

1/14/2023 10:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

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McGlothan's GCU career-high 24 points leads rally from 15 down

By: Paul Coro

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Grand Canyon's first-half issues caught up with the team on the road Saturday night, when the Lopes' effort to wipe out a 15-point hole came up short at California Baptist.

GCU (12-6, 3-2 WAC) stormed back quickly in the second half, pulling within one possession with 11 minutes to go and battling within two points with 4:30 remaining before a rare string of turnovers allowed CBU to win 79-74.

Lopes junior power forward Gabe McGlothan scored his GCU career high with 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including three huge follows that were part of his team-high eight rebounds.

The Lopes made 64% of their 2-point shots, 80% of their free throws, outrebounded the Lancers and only committed nine turnovers. But the 24-point difference from 3-point shooting was too much to overcome. GCU went 4 for 22 beyond the arc for its second-worst clip of the season (18.2%) while CBU hit 12 of 27 (a season-high 44.4%).

"We've got to start games much better," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "We can't build such a hole. We outscored them by five in the second half and played well, but we had built ourselves too deep of a hole to come out of.

"This year, we were picked to win the league. Teams play their best against us. This is their best game of the year, their best crowd of the year. Credit them for coming out and making shots. As our guys see this and see teams giving us their best, I think now they'll understand they've got to be ready because they're going to give us their absolute best punch the first five minutes of the game. It's great. It's going to make us better."

Despite it all, the Lopes cut the Lancers (11-8, 3-3 WAC) lead to 71-69 with 4:30 remaining before making three consecutive turnovers after only having six turnovers in the previous 35:30 of play. GCU's two lowest turnover totals of the season (eight and nine) have come against CBU.

Even after that stretch of miscues, GCU still had a chance to get back in the game, trailing 74-70 with two minutes to go, just three nights after CBU lost a home game to Utah Valley when leading by six with two minutes to go. But the Lopes missed 3-point shots on the next two possessions and were forced into last-ditch fouls down the stretch.

"They're being aggressive," Drew said. "They're trying to make plays to help us win. What I loved was their heart. We could've easily folded in the first half. We could've folded in the second half, but those guys really fought. If they fight like that and turn it over, those are correctable things that we can better at."

After falling behind 48-33 just 2:18 into the second half, GCU went to small ball and put together its best stretch of play in the game. The Lopes moved the ball and bodies while taking fewer 3-pointers to score 14 points in fewer than three minutes. CBU star point guard Taran Armstrong went to the bench early in the second half with four fouls while McGlothan led the Lopes' comeback with 20 of his 24 points in the second half.

McGlothan set his previous GCU career high of 20 last month when the Lopes beat Pepperdine at home. Making 9 of 12 shots also was the Chandler Basha High product's best shooting game of his career when taking more than five shots.

"Gabe played with a lot of toughness," Drew said. "He saw us getting down, and he wanted to change that. He wanted to win. As a coach, it was so satisfying to see because we've seen glimpses of Gabe throughout the last two years. But in this stretch of games, he's really stepped up. He's playing complete games, he's playing with a different desire than what we've seen on a consistent basis. I'm really proud of how he played tonight to will us to get back in the game."

With starting power forward Yvan Ouedraogo out for the sixth consecutive game after left hand surgery, CBU attacked the interior just as Stephen F. Austin had a week earlier. Utah graduate transfer Riley Battin, a 6-foot-9 power forward, matched his career high of 18 points and added a team-high seven rebounds. He was part of a Lancers starting lineup in which every player made a 3-pointer with four of them having multiple 3s. CBU had been shooting 32.5% from 3-point range on the season.

Armstrong hit a 3 for CBU's only field goal in the game's final eight minutes while his brother, Tre, made 4 of 5 shots from 3-point range for a 15-point night in front of a 5,050-fan sellout.

"When you're small, it's tougher to defend inside, especially when they're making 3s," Drew said. "That's something, until Yvan gets back, we're going to have to figure a way to get better. We've got to be able to guard their bigs better in the paint."

GCU led a Nov. 29 home game against Alcorn State 48-33 at halftime. In the 10 games since then, the Lopes have taken leads into halftime three times (by one point twice and four points once). After falling behind 39-29 at halftime Saturday night, the Lopes have trailed four consecutive games after the first half by an average of six points with a scoring average of 28.5 points per first half.

CBU hit its average for 3-pointers made in a game (8.3) by halftime with 8-for-16 shooting from beyond the arc, including making its first five 3-pointers to jump ahead 17-12. At that point, the Lopes went through an offensive funk without a made field goal for six minutes and 40 seconds. GCU fell behind 33-19 before digging in somewhat defensively but still trailed 39-29 at halftime.

The game marked the first time that the Lancers defeated the Lopes at CBU Events Center in four tries.

"Every single time we were close to maybe putting them down on the canvas, they came back even stronger," Lancers head coach Rick Croy told Fox Sports 1350 Riverside. "But that's the mark of a great program. And Grand Canyon, the No. 1 thing they do is compete."