Pace, quality climb for game vs. Hilltoppers

Saturday, Nov. 9 \| 6 p.m. \| Global Credit Union Arena \| Phoenix, Ariz.

	WESTERN KENTUCKY HILLTOPPERS (0-1)	at	GRAND CANYON LOPES (1-0)

WATCH: FOX10 Xtra (Ch. 45, Cable 9), ESPN+ \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic \| STATS: View

The season comes at teams fast, and Western Kentucky will come at Grand Canyon even faster.

With a season-opening win under its best, GCU picks up the pace in a hurry for stature and speed Saturday night when Western Kentucky visits Global Credit Union Arena for a 6 p.m. game.

The Lopes, who will be missing starters Duke Brennan and Tyon Grant-Foster, will face a Hilltoppers team that played at the fastest pace in the nation last season and won the Conference USA Tournament to reach NCAAs.

Phoenix, AZ Nov 4, 2024 : Grand Canyon opened the season with a 89-79 home victory over Cal State Fullerton. David Kadlubowski/GCU

Phoenix, AZ Nov 4, 2024 : Grand Canyon opened the season with a 89-79 home victory over Cal State Fullerton. David Kadlubowski/GCU

"Misses and makes, they're going to try to push and try to get shots up fast," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "They'll push the tempo with pressing after made baskets. Our guys are going to have to react very fast."

Western Kentucky lost its season opener 91-84 at home Monday to Wichita State, but the Hilltoppers' style of play resembled last season with three starters back from a 22-12 team. Western Kentucky averaged 2.1 possessions per minute in the opener to outdo last season's pace, but its performance was hampered by 6-for-25 shooting from 3-point range. The Hilltoppers also went 5 for 25 on 3s in an exhibition game vs. UAB.

Senior guard Don McHenry, who was on the Preseason All-Conference USA Team with Western Kentucky teammate Tyrone Marshall Jr., scored 21 and was not the team's leading scorer. Babacar Faye, a 6-foot-8 forward who averaged 7.5 points last season, nearly doubled his career scoring high with 28 points against Wichita State.

"It's a great game for our guys early in the year against a NCAA tournament team with a lot experience," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "It's going to be a great opportunity again for some of our younger guys to get minutes and make an impact."

The younger Lopes stepped into expanded roles when GCU opened the season with an 89-79 home win against Cal State Fullerton on Monday night. Brennan was out with an arm injury and Grant-Foster starts his season next game against Arizona State. That moved graduate Lök Wur and sophomore newcomer Makaih Williams into starting roles with freshmen Austin Maurer, Styles Phipps and Sammie Yeanay all making college debuts in Monday's first half.

Williams may be just a second-year player, but he started 30 games for UT Arlington last season to become WAC Freshman of the Year. The 6-foot-2 guard opened Monday with a backcourt turnover and three missed shots before finding his rhythm to tally 10 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Foul trouble limited Williams' night to 25 minutes and put more on Phipps, the point guard from St. Mary's High School in Phoenix. Phipps provided five points, three rebounds and a steal in 17 minutes. Maurer, a 7-foot freshman, logged 11 minutes and Yeanay, a 6-8 freshman, played seven minutes to help the shorthanded frontcourt, along with sophomore guard Caleb Shaw playing the four spot at times in his GCU debut.

"I thought the new guys gave us really good minutes in their first college game," Drew said. "Tyon will be back next week, but these guys have got a chance to grow a lot in the last couple weeks without him playing. Hopefully, the experience will help us in this game and moving forward."

"They try to put guys in space and empower them to make plays," Western Kentucky head coach Hank Plona said of the Lopes in his Monday postgame press conference. "We're expecting a very raucous environment down there, and we're going against a team that made the round of 32, so it'll be a heck of a challenge for us."

Grant-Foster's juco coach leads Tops

Nobody knows the style that GCU is about to face Saturday night better than Grant-Foster, who was coached for two years by Plona at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa.

Plona, an assistant coach for Western Kentucky last season, took over the Hilltoppers when last season's head coach, Steve Lutz, accepted the helm of Oklahoma State this offseason. Plona coached Grant-Foster in 2018-19 and 2019-20 at Indian Hills, where Plona's teams went 225-35.

Grant-Foster went from a freshman scoring 8.2 points per game to a sophomore averaging 16.5 under Plona.

"That's my guy," Grant-Foster said. "We're super close to this day. We always keep in touch. He holds a special place in my heart. He believed in me and gave me a chance. He told me the truth always. He always told me I'd be an NBA player if I did the right things."

Plona joked that he is looking forward to seeing Grant-Foster because he is not playing Saturday night as he sits out a final game in his return from NBA Draft early entry.

"He's always been a unique and special one in my eyes," Plona said of Grant-Foster in his press conference. "When I watched him play the summer going into his freshman year in college, I thought he was the one now – he was that kid that, man, oozed potential and has an upbeat attitude and positivity. I've always thought from the moment that we got him six years ago, he has a chance to be an NBA player. And he is an elite person and he's grown through it all.

"Some of the stuff that he's gone through, most guys ... talk about putting their head down. Man, they'd struggle to keep going or they'd say, 'Why me?.' He is a strong-willed, upbeat, positive young man. I think the world of him. He's family to me."

Lopes tracks

GCU senior guard Ray Harrison is one of seven Division I players with at least 2,000 career points, but he has played the least number of games (123) of the seven.
This is the first of two games the Lopes are playing as part of a scheduling initiative between the WAC and Conference USA. GCU also will visit Conference USA preseason favorite Louisiana Tech on Dec. 16.
The Lopes have won 17 consecutive games at Global Credit Union Arena to tie for the nation's seventh-longest active home winning streak.
Western Kentucky 6-foot-11 center Blaise Keita, a Nebraska transfer, did not play in the Hilltoppers' opener due to a knee bruise.
Saturday's game marks the first-ever meeting between GCU and Western Kentucky.
GCU is one of 37 programs to qualify for three of the past four NCAA tournaments.

Saturday, Nov. 9 | 6 p.m. | Global Credit Union Arena | Phoenix, Ariz.

Grant-Foster's juco coach leads Tops

Lopes tracks

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Duke Brennan

Tyon Grant-Foster

Ray Harrison

Austin Maurer

Styles Phipps

Caleb Shaw

Makaih Williams

Lök Wur

Sammie Yeanay

Grand Canyon University Athletics