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
Monday, November 4
Phoenix, Ariz.
7 p.m.
Grand Canyon
vs
Cal State Fullerton
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
Lopes extend work on boards to prep for opening night
11/3/2024 4:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
GCU faces Cal State Fullerton at home to start regular season Monday
Monday, Nov. 4 | 7 p.m. | Global Credit Union Arena | Phoenix, Ariz. |
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CAL STATE FULLERTON TITANS (0-0) |
at | GRAND CANYON LOPES (0-0) |
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Grand Canyon is starting its season Monday night, but the Lopes are in midseason form for expectations.
The Lopes begin their most anticipated season ever Monday with a 7 p.m. game against Cal State Fullerton at Global Credit Union Arena, where the glow of optimism is shining on a team expected to repeat as WAC champions and earn more national acclaim.
The difference in performance between an exhibition game against No. 8 Baylor that pleased fifth-year GCU head coach Bryce Drew and Tuesday's home debut against Division II Eastern New Mexico created a rebounding focus after the latter 87-57 Lopes blowout win.
GCU allowed 14 offensive rebounds to Eastern New Mexico, controlling just 69% of defensive rebounding opportunities. Since then, each Lopes practice began with a box-out segment to be more lik
e the team that outrebounded opponents by 4.4 boards per game last season."With losing such a great instinctual rebounder like Gabe (McGlothan) and with Tyon (Grant-Foster) not playing these first couple games, we have to go back to the fundamentals of rebounding and really boxing out," Drew said. "That's been on the top of the list of every practice with post defense."
It will be a team effort that is helped by a physical, experienced starting backcourt in GCU seniors Ray Harrison and Collin Moore. Harrison has started all 122 of his career games and needs nine points to hit the 2,000-point landmark, while Moore played his first full healthy season for the 30-5 Lopes and has 48 starts in 87 career games.
Last season's success was highlighted by offense and built by defense. GCU held opponents to 40.3% shooting from the field while ranking ninth nationally in blocked shots and 39th nationally in steals.
The Lopes were already growing as a team with the late-season surge of Lök Wur, a 6-foot-9 graduate forward who averaged 10.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 20.5 minutes per game over the last 14 games last season. Now, they add senior forward JaKobe Coles, a TCU transfer who averaged 10 points last season, scored 16 points in the exhibition and is versatile at both ends."We're a very competitive team," Coles said. "We're very skilled. We can't get over our heads. We had a very good year last year, so we can't come in thinking we're going to beat every team. We've got to be locked in because teams are going to want to come in and beat us down."
GCU won 86% of its games last season for the sixth-highest winning percentage in the nation. This season's schedule will test the Lopes frequently with 13 games against opponents who won at least 20 games last season.
"Our games are against teams that either last year or recently have been conference champions or gone to the NCAA tournament," Drew said. "We definitely need to be ready from the first game on."
Cal State Fullerton put together consecutive 20-win seasons for only the second time in program history in 2021-22 and 2022-23 but slipped to 14-18 last season. Titans 12th-year head coach Dedrique Taylor, previously Herb Sendek's associate head coach at Arizona State, retooled his roster with eight new players who can make him the Titans' winningest coach ever with his next victory.
The group is highlighted by 6-foot-4, 210-pound guard Zion Richardson, who began his career at Wofford before moving to Division II Quincy. He averaged 11.4 points and 5.6 rebounds with 41% 3-point shooting and will complement returning junior guard Donovan Oday, who averaged 7.1 points off the bench last season.
Typically an offense with four players on the outside to isolate and drive, Fullerton intends to play a more physical style this season with larger lineups.
GCU will not stray from its attacking style that resulted in the third-most free throw points in the nation last season. The Lopes went 24 for 31 (77.4%) on free throws in Tuesday's exhibition game.
"We have a lot of guys who have a good ability to get downhill and get to the rim," Drew said. "That's a big part of our offense to be aggressive."
Opening-night emotions are tempered by GCU already having a sellout crowd and the Havocs experience in Tuesday night's exhibition match. Regardless, this will mark official debuts for many Lopes and the start of a mission for returning players who wish to top last season's NCAA tournament second-round run."We definitely got a taste of it, and now this is the real thing," Lopes 7-foot freshman center Austin Maurer said. "I'm super excited, and now I know what it looks like and feels like. I'm excited to go out and do my thing and compete with my brothers."
Lope tracks
- Grant-Foster will be able to return Nov. 14 vs. Arizona State after working his way back from NBA Draft early entry.
- Harrison needs nine points to reach 2,000 for his career. He has a four-year scoring average of 16.3 points per game.
- Coles went from making 31% of his 3-point shots over his first three college seasons to making 42% of 3s last season for TCU.
- Williams came off the bench for his first four games last season as a UT Arlington freshman before starting the final 30 games. He made 45% of his 3s and averaged 11 points as a starter.
- GCU is 10-1 in home openers as a Division I program.
- The two programs met once previously in Jan. 31, 1961, when then-Orange County State defeated Grand Canyon 79-76.
Players Mentioned
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