Back-to-back 20-win seasons come with road grit

Tuesday, February 28

St. George, Utah

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

20-8,12-5WAC

Utah Tech

17-11,9-8WAC

Grand Canyon

Utah Tech

2/28/2023 8:43:00 PM | Women's Basketball, Paul Coro

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Lopes never trail in 2nd half at Utah Tech; Buzzelle nets season-high 15

By: Paul Coro

ST. GEORGE, Utah — With every challenge, the Grand Canyon women's basketball changes into a better version of itself.

In the final week of the regular season, the Lopes were playing a quality team on the road and watching a lead slip into a tie and their point guard foul out in one crunch-time play. But as it routinely has done in close January and February games, GCU turned clutch to never trail in the second half of a 70-63 conference victory at Utah Tech. The Lopes are 6-1 in games decided by seven points or fewer since Jan. 1.

GCU (20-8, 12-5 WAC) secured a second consecutive 20-win season for the first time in its 10-year Division I era by closing out the Trailblazers with a 7-0 run, which came after Utah Tech's tying score was its final one with 2:08 to go. The Lopes win secures a first-round bye in next week's WAC Tournament with GCU firmly in third in the WAC Resume Seeding System and one regular-season game remaining Thursday at Southern Utah.

St. George, UT - FEBRUARY 28: GCU beats 70-63 in St George, Utah (Photo by: David Kadlubowski/GCU)

St. George, UT - FEBRUARY 28: GCU beats 70-63 in St George, Utah (Photo by: David Kadlubowski/GCU)

"When you take over a program, you have some vision and ideas and sometimes that comes with some tough times," Lopes third-year head coach Molly Miller said. "There's a whole new expectation. To have back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in DI era, that's the expectation now. We're learning how to win, and we're learning how to compete at a whole new level. That takes a lot of sacrifice, so a 20-win season is now reward for that sacrifice that we're not done yet."

GCU put five scorers in double figures with a frequent favorite, junior forward Tiarra Brown, leading the team with 18 points, two blocked shots and two steals. But the key to cracking Utah Tech's zone defense was freshman guard Ellie Buzzelle, who set a season high by halftime with 13 points and finished with 15 points, including four 3-pointers.

Buzzelle hurt her shooting hand in a late December practice and had been playing with it in a splint until last week. After logging seven minutes in the past two games combined, Buzzelle earned a season-high 27 minutes off the bench Tuesday night. The 5-foot-8 Minnesotan hit her first 3 late in the first quarter and added three more 3s in the second quarter, including consecutive 3s that wiped away Utah Tech's last lead with the latter being a four-point play.

"Since my injury, it's been tough getting back," said Buzzelle, who had made nine 3-pointers in her first five GCU games and then eight 3s in the next 19 games until Tuesday. "I finally got out of the splint.. I couldn't catch a ball for the first three or four weeks. Now, it's actually getting better to where I can move it and shoot with it.

"It's been tough to overcome mentally. In practice, I've just been letting them fly now. Going into today, it was just about having fun. I think not worrying about a single thing out there has been huge for me and being confident that my time is going to come. I'm a freshman, so I've got a lot of years, days, games ahead of me. Helping out the team is my biggest thing."

St. George, UT - FEBRUARY 28: GCU beats 70-63 in St George, Utah (Photo by: David Kadlubowski/GCU)

Brown knifed up the zone defense for 11 first-half points to help GCU take a 34-29 lead, which stretched to as much as 51-39 in the third quarter with Brown scoring more on a crossover transition move and a layup off sophomore guard Naudia Evans' wraparound pass against Trailblazers ramped-up pressure. Speeding up GCU helped at times with sophomore point guard Aaliyah Collins swerving through defenders for scores on her 10-point, five-assist, three-steal night. Collins' steals total matches her season average that ranks 13th nationally.

"AC had some phenomenal drives where she knifed in through four people for a layup," Miller said. "I think tempo is where she really succeeds. So when they did get after it and started trapping us there at half-court, picking up the pace was more our style in terms of style and AC fed off that."

When Collins fouled out with 2:08 remaining, Utah Tech converted the two free throws to tie the score at 63-63, the first time it had not trailed since the first half.

With a chance for the Trailblazers to go ahead, Brown drew an offensive foul and delivered a clutch basket on a baseline drive for a 65-63 lead with 1:11 remaining. She also joined Evans on a defensive trap that turned over the Trailblazers, who committed three turnovers as they did not score on their final five possessions of the game.

"It starts somewhere, getting everyone energized even if it's not scoring," Brown said. "Somewhere on the court, you want to start everyone else up.

"This one feels great, especially when you know you can come together as a team and just believe in each other and trust each other to get the job done."

Utah Tech had been 9-3 at Burns Arena until it was held to 36.2% shooting and no bench points with 18 turnovers by GCU, which is 11-0 when its opponent shoots 36.5% or worse from the field. Junior Olivia Lane (11 points, 10 rebounds) added her second double-double of the season.

"We got big stops at the end," Miller said. "We gritted our teeth and had that mentality that we were flying around and we were going to be one and done."