Harrison's 28 raises GCU in road rally

Thursday, January 5

Huntsville, Texas / Bernard Johnson Coliseum

5:30 p.m. (MST)

Grand Canyon

11-4,2-0WAC

Sam Houston

11-4,1-2WAC

OT 1

Grand Canyon

Sam Houston

1/5/2023 9:12:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Down 3 starters, Lopes erase 9-point hole for OT win at Sam Houston

By: Paul Coro

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Grand Canyon's Thursday night matchup at Sam Houston already had the makings to be one of the program's greatest wins of its 10-year Division I era.

The nuances of the Lopes' 72-68 overtime victory at Johnson Coliseum made it so much more.

After losing its second and third starters to injury during the game, making 15 first-half turnovers and trailing by nine with 4:21 to go, GCU's lean, mean fighting machine rode a determined season-high 28 points by sophomore guard Ray Harrison to a valiant victory.

"It was exhausting, but how about the effort from our team in the second half?" Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "Really credit the heart of our guys and the toughness they showed in that second half and the overtime. Rayshon was a huge part of that. He was just sensational, getting baskets and getting to the free throw line."

The Lopes (11-4, 2-0 WAC) handed the Bearkats (11-4, 1-2 WAC) only their 12th home loss in seven seasons and made Sam Houston its highest-ranked road victim by NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET). The Bearkats were ranked No. 27, the same spot that San Francisco held when GCU defeated it in a neutral-site game last season.

Sam Houston's pressure defense came as advertised to unsettle GCU, which already has junior power forward Yvan Ouedraogo out and then lost junior point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. to injury in the game's 11th minute and junior guard Josh Baker to injury with 11 minutes remaining in regulation.

"That was scary," Harrison said of Blacksher going to the floor on a dribble drive. "He's the heart of our team. We love that dude. I love seeing that dude play. When he plays well, it makes me happy. It hurts to see him go down, but we know he'll bounce back. He's built for it.

"It was all heart (after the Baker injury). It was already in us. I don't know why we always choose to take the hardest road and come out slow and allow the other team to punch us first. But we tightened up down the road."

The Lopes, also with a top-15 defense for opponent field goal percentage, kept the Bearkats from ever leading by more than 10 and threw Sam Houston a late-game wrinkle with zone defense. Trailing 55-49 with less than three minutes to go, GCU rallied with junior power forward Gabe McGlothan finding redshirt freshman Kobe Knox for a layup before hitting two free throws.

Within two for the first time since an ugly 9-7 Sam Houston start to the game's first 12 minutes, Harrison continued using his size advantage against the Bearkats guards to handle their pressure as the primary playmaker. His high-release drive tied the game at 55-55 with 53 seconds to go before the game was put in his hands again after Sam Houston took a 57-55 lead with 37.5 seconds go.

"He was just tremendous at all facets," Drew said of Harrison. "He bailed us out offensively. We really struggled to move the ball. We struggled to get a quality shot at times, and he was able to go one on one and use his physicality."

Faced with the same situation as last year's 58-56 loss at Sam Houston that ended in a miss, Harrison drew a foul on a pull-up jumper with 26.6 seconds to go and made the free throws to tie the game.

Harrison scored 28 points in a 43-minute effort on a night when he was 0 for 6 on 3-pointers. The 6-foot-4 guard from South Carolina made 9 of 13 shots inside the arc and 10 of 14 free throws by turning the defensive pressure into putting Bearkats guards on his back.

"That's what I struggled with early on in the season: I allowed my shooting to affect my overall shooting performance," Harrison said. "I knew coming into his game, if my shots aren't falling, OK, cool, I'll just try to get to the basket. Most of their guards were smaller than me."

Sam Houston's potential game-tying shot missed on a drive by Qua Grant, who scored 26 but missed a left-handed drive against Harrison when he had to adjust the shot's arc against McGlothan's leaping help defense.

Going to mostly a small lineup of Harrison, McGlothan (nine points, 13 rebounds), Knox, graduate forward Noah Baumann (11 points) and sophomore guard Chance McMillian for the final 16 minutes, GCU opened overtime with the lead on two Harrison attacks before a McGlothan 3-point post play.

The Lopes stretched the lead to as much as eight, but consecutive turnovers and consecutive Grant 3-pointers gave a chance to Sam Houston, which missed five overtime free throws to take away its chance.

During this four-game winning streak, GCU has won twice in overtime and once by two points to flip the results of two close losses in early December. This one came despite making 25 turnovers, the most the Lopes made in a Division I-era victory by four (21 vs. Robert Morris in 2017).

As Sam Houston established its style early and had one foul to GCU's eight fouls at one point, Drew picked up a technical foul four minutes into the game. The Lopes faced their largest deficit at 31-21 before they ended the half with freshman center Isaiah Carr's blocked shot leading to a Harrison fastbreak layup.

"As a coach, I wanted to show them we were going to be aggressive and stay aggressive," Drew said of his rare technical foul. "Our guys had so many resilient moments on the road. It's a tremendous effort. We were playing down the stretch with a freshman and three sophomores. I'm just really proud of the poise and the confidence that they played with."

Drew delivered that message of aggression into the locker room at the break, and the Lopes outscored the Bearkats 49-37 after halftime.

"He challenged all of us," Harrison said. "We knew it started with us individually. We just upped the intensity. Hats off to that team. Their defensive pressure was remarkable, and it flustered us in the beginning. But once we settled in down the stretch, we handled business."

GCU will now have to handle a short turnaround with a shorthanded team. The Lopes play Saturday afternoon at Stephen F. Austin, which played at home Wednesday night in a 69-60 win against New Mexico State.