Lopes fall to UT Arlington in home finale

Saturday, February 25

Phoenix, Ariz.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

19-8,11-5WAC

UT Arlington

14-15,8-9WAC

UT Arlington

Grand Canyon

2/25/2023 5:52:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Phillips, Zars honored for Senior Day

By: Nick Macdonald

The Grand Canyon women's basketball team dropped its regular season home finale Saturday afternoon, falling 93-77 to UT Arlington at GCU Arena.

The loss moves the Lopes to 19-8 overall and 11-5 in WAC play. Prior to Saturday's contest, the Lopes sat in third place of the WAC resume seeding system, 1.3 points above California Baptist.

Prior to the game, graduate Evan Zars and senior Dominique Phillips were honored for senior day. Zars nears the completion of her collegiate career where she became the sixth active D1 player to achieve 1,000 career points and rebounds earlier this season. Zars started her 129th career game Saturday and is nearing 1,100 career rebounds. Phillips, a vital piece off the bench the past two seasons for coach Molly Miller's squad, appeared in her 80th career game and 55th for the Lopes. Phillips is a career 41% shooter, with 500+ points and 200+ rebounds and was an All-WAC Academic recipient her junior year for GCU.

Student manager Cam Borowick and graduate student manager Cole Yearout were also honored prior to the contest.

UT Arlington (14-15, 8-9 WAC) shot 68.7% from the field in the first quarter, including 2-of-3 from three and 4-of-5 from the free throw line as it led 28-13 after the first quarter. GCU nearly evened the total scoring in the second quarter, but trailed by double digits into halftime, 50-34.

The Lopes found a spark early in the third, outscoring the Mavericks 12-5 in the first five minutes with junior Tiarra Brown scoring six points in a 52 second span to make it 55-48. GCU cut it to five points (57-52) with 4:11 on the clock before UT Arlington closed the quarter on a 13-3 run to lead 70-55. The Mavericks led by double digits the rest of the way as the Lopes fell at home for only the fourth time this season (17 total home games).

Brown led the team in scoring with 19 points, adding three rebounds and five steals for the day. Sophomore Aaliyah Collins was one steal shy of the school D1 single game record, tallying seven steals with eight points and five assists. Zars led all Lopes rebounders with seven while Phillips had 10 points and two assists.

The Lopes close out the regular season on the road next week, beginning Feb. 28 at Utah Tech at 7 p.m. followed by the regular season finale Mar. 2 at Southern Utah at 6:30 p.m.