Late-season push starts with late-night national audience

Friday, Feb. 17 \| 9 p.m. \| GCU Arena \| Phoenix, Ariz.

	ABILENE CHRISTIAN WILDCATS (13-12, 7-7 WAC)	at	GRAND CANYON LOPES (16-10, 8-6 WAC)

WATCH: ESPNU \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic \| STATS: View

"Late Night with Grand Canyon" debuts Friday night for an ESPNU audience.

The Lopes, stinging from two games when wins turned to sand between their fingers, get a 9 p.m. tipoff chance to put on a show for who they are and what "The Biggest Party in College Basketball" looks like.

Abilene Christian will try to be party crashers at GCU Arena in conference race that has eight teams separated by three in the loss column. Despite the recent slips, the Lopes (16-10, 8-6 WAC) could put themselves in position for a critical WAC Tournament seeding against Seattle U at home next week.

With losing a late nine-point lead at Seattle U on Saturday and getting beat on a putback with 1.4 seconds to go by UT Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday, the Lopes have taken seven of their losses by an average of 3.4 points this season.

"We've got to finish possessions and plays," GCU junior guard Josh Baker said. "(Senior guard) Walt (Ellis) made a good point that we're about eight possessions away from having two losses instead of 10. It's tough when we have games like that, when we know we could've pulled it off. But I feel like we'll be able to come together, finish those games off and finish this last stretch of the season."

The Lopes were on a four-game winning streak and started conference play at 2-0 on Jan. 5 before learning that WAC Preseason Player of the Year Jovan Blacksher Jr. needed season-ending knee surgery. Since then, GCU has been on a 5-6 roller coaster with short-lived thrills.

Optimism is building from how the elite defensive play of head coach Bryce Drew's first 2 1/2 seasons has returned since Baker and junior center Yvan Ouedraogo recovered from injuries. The Lopes are allowing 38% opponent shooting in the past three games but lost the past two games by missing 12 of their last 13 shots on Saturday and allowing 22 offensive rebounds on Wednesday.

GCU edged Abilene Christian (15-12, 7-7 WAC) for a 75-73 road win when Baker was out. Sophomore guards Ray Harrison (19) and Chance McMillian (17) combined for 36 points on 63% shooting.

Redshirt freshman guard Kobe Knox played a season-high 27 minutes in the game but has eclipsed that total three times in the five games since then, including Wednesday's five-block performance. For some such as the native of Tampa, Florida, Friday night marks their first nationally televised game with a tip time that comes when games normally end.

"It's exciting to play on national television to get show the nation how we play and hopefully we put on a show for everybody and really bounce back," Knox said. "We've just got to find a way to turn our season around and get ready for Vegas. We haven't been able to show people our true potential as a team, so we have to do that now."

GCU has played mostly close games this season, going 7-7 in contests decided by overtime or with margins of five points or fewer.

"We're talking two plays in the last two games," Drew said. "It's heartbreaking for our team, but there's a lot of things that happened in the course of that game that put us in that situation. Last year at this time, St. Peter's was 12-11 (and won 10 consecutive games to reach the Elite Eight). You still want to play your best basketball. We have to get fresh, and we have to come out on Friday and play better." .

Lope tracks

The game will be called on ESPNU by play-by-play announcer Steve Quis and analyst Adrian Branch.
GCU is 4-0 against Abilene Christian, including 2-0 in the past two seasons.
Sophomore guard Ray Harrison (38 points vs. Utah Tech), junior power forward Gabe McGlothan (18 rebounds vs. Northern Iowa) and injured junior Jovan Blacksher Jr. (seven steals vs. Grambling) hold the WAC season highs for each category.
Abilene Christian senior guard Immanuel Allen, who went to Phoenix Shadow Mountain High School with Blacksher, did not play in the teams' first meeting but returned to action last week with 11 points in 20 reserve minutes against Sam Houston.
Harrison has scored in double figures for 20 consecutive games and is the WAC scoring leader in conference games at 19.9 points per game. His previous longest streak for double-digit scoring was 18 games.
Harrison has made 122 free throws this season, ranking 30th in the nation. He has made seven in the past three games.
McGlothan's season average of 8.2 rebounds per game ranks second in the WAC and 78th nationally.
McGlothan needs 37 points to reach 1,000 for his career.
After going 33 for 71 (46.5%) on 3-pointers in the past 18 games, GCU graduate forward Noah Baumann ranks 22nd nationally among active players for career 3-point shooting percentage at 42.3%. He is one of three active players with 240 made 3s and 42% accuracy.
The Lopes were 10-0 when scoring 75 points until Wednesday's 77-76 loss. They are 8-0 when they shoot 48% or better.
GCU ranks No. 38 nationally for opponent field goal percentage (40.6%) and 71st for opponent points per game (66.0). Opponents have shot 38% in the past three games.

WAC Resume Seeding System (updated Feb. 17)
Rank	Team	Record (WAC only)	WAC points
1.	Utah Valley	20-6 (11-2)	5.49
2.	Sam Houston	19-6 (9-4)	4.70
3.	Seattle U	18-9 (9-5)	2.86
4.	Southern Utah	17-9 (9-4)	2.59
5.	GCU	16-10 (8-6)	1.73
6.	Stephen F. Austin	17-9 (9-4)	1.68
7.	Tarleton	14-13 (8-7)	0.16
8.	Abilene Christian	13-12 (7-7)	-1.22
9.	California Baptist	15-12 (7-7)	-1.40
10.	UT Rio Grande Valley	13-14 (5-10)	-2.55
11.	Utah Tech	11-15 (3-10)	-2.97
12.	UT Arlington	9-17 (4-9)	-4.98
13.	New Mexico State	Disqualified

The WAC Resume Seeding System will determine seeding for the 12-team WAC Tournament. The top four seeds will receive first-round byes.