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
Sunday, November 19
Glendale, Ariz. / Desert Diamond Arena
5 p.m.
Grand Canyon
3-1,0-0WAC
68
vs
75
South Carolina
5-0,0-0SEC
1
2
F
South Carolina
30
45
75
Grand Canyon
29
39
68
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
Gamecocks stay undefeated, hold off Lopes
11/19/2023 9:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
GCU pulled tight late with help of McGlothan's 18-point game
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Grand Canyon could not seize the opportunity to hand South Carolina its first defeat of the season Sunday.
Now, it will be up to the Lopes to opportunistically apply the lessons of their 75-68 loss to the Gamecocks at Desert Diamond Arena to upcoming games.
GCU (3-1) remained in position to knock off South Carolina in the Arizona Tip-Off Cactus Division championship, but allowing 54% shooting and having continued bench issues undid the Lopes' rally.
GCU lost an early second-half lead and trailed by as much as 11 points before trimming South Carolina's lead to 61-59 with 5:34 remaining, when free throws by graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan were part of his 18-point, nine-rebound night.
Gamecocks power forward B.J. Mack, a 6-foot-8, 270-pound Wofford graduate transfer, made a 3-pointer and was fouled on a 3-point attempt to cushion the lead with six of his game-high 27 points, one shy of his career high. He was coming off a four-point Friday game against DePaul.
The Lopes pulled within a possession one last time at 71-68 when junior guard Collin Moore made a fadeaway jumper with 1:08 remaining, but South Carolina backup point guard Jacob Wright scored on a drive to send the Gamecocks to a 5-0 start.
South Carolina's bench outscored GCU's bench 19-4, a game after the Lopes did not have any reserve points in the Friday night win against San Francisco.
"We didn't have quite the same punch as we had on Friday, but we definitely put ourselves in a position to win the game," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said.
"We're still trying to find a true identity of who we are. We have a lot of alphas out there that really like to score the ball. There's only one ball out there. With all the alphas, we've got to continue to work and help each other score a little bit easier, a little bit better. But you need games like this to be able to show it, to show film and to be able to take steps forward."
The Lopes' leading scorers of the 3-0 start, senior guard Tyon Grant-Foster and junior guard Ray Harrison, went a combined 9 for 28 from the field against South Carolina.
But much like the win against San Francisco, GCU's aggressive offense survived off drawing fouls to help McGlothan (18 points), Grant-Foster (16), Moore (15) and Harrison (12) reach double figures. The Lopes went 23 for 27 on free throws after Friday's free throw tally was 28 for 38, their highest free throw attempt total in six years.
"We have four guys that are really confrontational in the paint – Gabe, Ray, Tyon, Collin," Drew said. "They're all physical, strong and good with their body. So they put a lot of pressure on the defense with their physicality in the paint."
GCU's shooting from the field was as low as 31% before a 9-for-16 close boosted the game clip to 39%.
Despite picking up his fourth foul with 10:51 remaining, McGlothan remained in the game and took advantage of a mismatch in the post against Stephen Clark, one of three starting graduate transfers for South Carolina. McGlothan went 4 for 8 from the field and made 9 of 10 free throws.
"These guys look to me, and I just wanted to be a rock for them," McGlothan said. "So just staying in the game and staying out of foul trouble, that was important. Coach trusted me with that opportunity, and I didn't want to let him down."
South Carolina led for all but 2 ½ minutes of the game, starting with an early 14-3 run. When GCU's defense dug in, the Lopes could not gain traction because of a glut of turnovers.
Grant-Foster made three straight shots during a GCU push, and the Lopes took a late first-half lead on a McGlothan 3, only for South Carolina to take it back in the final seconds for a 30-29 halftime lead.
Mack scored 21 of his 27 points in the second half with his mix of long-range shooting ability and physical post play. After nine first-half turnovers, the Gamecocks made one in the second half.
South Carolina scored on seven consecutive possessions to build its largest leads at 54-43 and 56-45 midway through the second half. The Lopes erased a big chunk of that with McGlothan's offense and more big shots from Moore. Showing his two-way ability, Moore went 5 for 11 on 3-pointers at the Arizona Tip-Off while his teammates were 6 for 29 on 3s.
Next, GCU plays North Dakota State (3-2) at 6 p.m. Saturday at GCU Arena before starting WAC play earlier than usual next week. The Lopes play a Nov. 29 conference opener at UT Rio Grande Valley.
"We've got to get a lot better," Drew said. "This tournament was great. We saw a lot of really good things. Now we have to continue to grow and find more of an identity.
"But you're starting to see it shape a little bit. Now the more games we play and the more practice we have, we can fine-tune some of those things and be more solid out there and not make as many mistakes at both ends."
Now, it will be up to the Lopes to opportunistically apply the lessons of their 75-68 loss to the Gamecocks at Desert Diamond Arena to upcoming games.
GCU (3-1) remained in position to knock off South Carolina in the Arizona Tip-Off Cactus Division championship, but allowing 54% shooting and having continued bench issues undid the Lopes' rally.
GCU lost an early second-half lead and trailed by as much as 11 points before trimming South Carolina's lead to 61-59 with 5:34 remaining, when free throws by graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan were part of his 18-point, nine-rebound night.
Gamecocks power forward B.J. Mack, a 6-foot-8, 270-pound Wofford graduate transfer, made a 3-pointer and was fouled on a 3-point attempt to cushion the lead with six of his game-high 27 points, one shy of his career high. He was coming off a four-point Friday game against DePaul.
"He was really good in a lot of different ways," South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris said on 107.5 The Game. "It's such an advantage and a luxury to have a bigger guy late in games who can make free throws consistently and wants to be in that moment. Having a pick and pop threat that is real does a lot for your team. He had a really good game for us in a lot of different ways, but he was able to put the ball in the basket and did a pretty good job of keeping their guy off the glass."
The Lopes pulled within a possession one last time at 71-68 when junior guard Collin Moore made a fadeaway jumper with 1:08 remaining, but South Carolina backup point guard Jacob Wright scored on a drive to send the Gamecocks to a 5-0 start.South Carolina's bench outscored GCU's bench 19-4, a game after the Lopes did not have any reserve points in the Friday night win against San Francisco.
"We didn't have quite the same punch as we had on Friday, but we definitely put ourselves in a position to win the game," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said.
"We're still trying to find a true identity of who we are. We have a lot of alphas out there that really like to score the ball. There's only one ball out there. With all the alphas, we've got to continue to work and help each other score a little bit easier, a little bit better. But you need games like this to be able to show it, to show film and to be able to take steps forward."
The Lopes' leading scorers of the 3-0 start, senior guard Tyon Grant-Foster and junior guard Ray Harrison, went a combined 9 for 28 from the field against South Carolina.
But much like the win against San Francisco, GCU's aggressive offense survived off drawing fouls to help McGlothan (18 points), Grant-Foster (16), Moore (15) and Harrison (12) reach double figures. The Lopes went 23 for 27 on free throws after Friday's free throw tally was 28 for 38, their highest free throw attempt total in six years."We have four guys that are really confrontational in the paint – Gabe, Ray, Tyon, Collin," Drew said. "They're all physical, strong and good with their body. So they put a lot of pressure on the defense with their physicality in the paint."
GCU's shooting from the field was as low as 31% before a 9-for-16 close boosted the game clip to 39%.
Despite picking up his fourth foul with 10:51 remaining, McGlothan remained in the game and took advantage of a mismatch in the post against Stephen Clark, one of three starting graduate transfers for South Carolina. McGlothan went 4 for 8 from the field and made 9 of 10 free throws.
"These guys look to me, and I just wanted to be a rock for them," McGlothan said. "So just staying in the game and staying out of foul trouble, that was important. Coach trusted me with that opportunity, and I didn't want to let him down."
South Carolina led for all but 2 ½ minutes of the game, starting with an early 14-3 run. When GCU's defense dug in, the Lopes could not gain traction because of a glut of turnovers.Grant-Foster made three straight shots during a GCU push, and the Lopes took a late first-half lead on a McGlothan 3, only for South Carolina to take it back in the final seconds for a 30-29 halftime lead.
Mack scored 21 of his 27 points in the second half with his mix of long-range shooting ability and physical post play. After nine first-half turnovers, the Gamecocks made one in the second half.
South Carolina scored on seven consecutive possessions to build its largest leads at 54-43 and 56-45 midway through the second half. The Lopes erased a big chunk of that with McGlothan's offense and more big shots from Moore. Showing his two-way ability, Moore went 5 for 11 on 3-pointers at the Arizona Tip-Off while his teammates were 6 for 29 on 3s.
Next, GCU plays North Dakota State (3-2) at 6 p.m. Saturday at GCU Arena before starting WAC play earlier than usual next week. The Lopes play a Nov. 29 conference opener at UT Rio Grande Valley.
"We've got to get a lot better," Drew said. "This tournament was great. We saw a lot of really good things. Now we have to continue to grow and find more of an identity.
"But you're starting to see it shape a little bit. Now the more games we play and the more practice we have, we can fine-tune some of those things and be more solid out there and not make as many mistakes at both ends."
Team Stats
USC
GCU
FG%
.540
.392
3FG%
.412
.313
FT%
.875
.852
RB
23
30
TO
10
13
STL
3
3
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
18
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
9
Pts
16
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
5
Pts
15
FGM
5
3FGM
3
FTM
2
Pts
12
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballG
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