Completed Event: Men's Basketball at Baylor on October 10, 2025 , Loss , 74, to, 79
M Basketball
at Baylor
L 74-79
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Grand Canyon University Athletics
Monday, December 16
Ruston, La. / Thomas Assembly Center
5:30 p.m. (MST)
Grand Canyon
6-4,0-0WAC
66
at
74
Louisiana Tech
10-2,0-0CUSA
1
2
F
Grand Canyon
33
33
66
Louisiana Tech
32
42
74
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
Trip ends with another so-close rally
12/16/2024 11:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
GCU reduced 13-point deficit to 1 before losing at Louisiana Tech
RUSTON, La. – Grand Canyon could not come all the way back from a double-digit deficit for the second time on the road trip, returning the Lopes to the Valley in need of a comeback that is stronger than the setback.
Mired in another difficult perimeter shooting night, the Lopes climbed out of a 13-point hole Monday night at Louisiana Tech close enough to see daylight before missing the final necessary shots again. The Bulldogs (10-2) staved off the rally by scoring on their final three possessions for a 74-66 win at Thomas Assembly Center.
GCU (6-4) missed its final four shots, all from 3-point range, to finish 6 for 27 on 3s. It marks the first time since December 2019 that the Lopes have made fewer than 30% of 3-pointers in four consecutive games.
Three of those six made 3s came in a 65-second burst from GCU reserves Lok Wur, a graduate forward, and Caleb Shaw, a sophomore guard. When senior forward JaKobe Coles made two free throws to cut the Louisiana Tech lead to 68-66 with 2:13 to go, the bench impact of Wur, Shaw and freshman point guard Styles Phipps gave the Lopes a chance to rally late for win against the Bulldogs for a second consecutive year.
But even with Lopes senior swingman Tyon Grant-Foster making a steal, GCU could not clear the hump again.
Lopes senior guard Ray Harrison missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer, and Louisiana Tech junior point guard Sean Newman Jr. completed his career night by guiding a 6-0 finish. He drove for a score, dished for a slam and made two free throws on Louisiana Tech's final three possessions to complete his night of a career-high 25 points and nine assists.
"Our guys have got to respond when teams bring their best at us," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "You got to bring your best back to win. I thought we had a lot of guys bring great effort, great intensity and really had a will to win. Unfortunately, we came up short at the end."
The Preseason All-WAC team duo of Grant-Foster and Harrison went 2 for 18 from the field with two-thirds of the shots being 3-point attempts (1 for 12). In the past five games, Grant-Foster is 1 for 25 from 3-point range.
"Tyon's a much better player than he's playing," Drew said. "My job as a coach is we've got to get it out of them, so we've been trying different things in the last month and we're going to keep trying more things until we get them back on track."
GCU still overcame a double-digit hole to start the game (13-2) to lead at halftime (33-32) and nearly did it again in the second half against the preseason Conference USA favorite.
In the first half, the Lopes' defensive intensity bothered Louisiana Tech for nine turnovers while Louisiana Tech star center Daniel Batcho sat for 12 of the 20 minutes because of foul trouble. With Batcho mostly off the floor, GCU scored 20 of its 33 first-half points on second chances.
Coles scored 11 of his team-best 19 points in the first half, going on a one-man, 7-0 run with 3-pointer, turnaround jumper and steal for a fastbreak layup to give GCU the lead back at 23-21.
"I thought JaKobe really played with a lot of energy," Drew said. "He played basketball the right way, moved the ball, took good shots. I was really happy with his performance."
Drew cleared the bench 3 1/2 minutes into the game when Louisiana Tech was leading 10-2 and continued to go to the reserves with success. When the Bulldogs rebuilt their lead to 59-46 on consecutive Bathco alleyoop dunks with 7:57 to go, the insertion of Phipps, Shaw and Wur sparked GCU again.
Shaw scored on a backdoor slam and Phipps drove for a layup before Wur sank back-to-back 3s. Despite the team's long-distance woes, Wur has made 8 of 11 shots from 3-point range in the past three games and averaged 12.3 points in 16.3 minutes per game during that stretch.
GCU outscored Louisiana Tech by 12 in Phipps' 13 minutes and by nine in Shaw's 14 minutes. The four starting returnees had negative plus-minus ratings in the double digits, as the Lopes shot 40% or less from the field for a second consecutive game.
"Doing a back-to-back, basically, after a super-physical Georgia game for 40 minutes, I think you saw the legs come out a little bit on some of our 3-point shooting on guys," Drew said.
"I love the willingness of the guys off the bench to come in and play pure basketball. They work really hard in practice every day, and they want to win. So I was really proud of their effort."
GCU also only shot 17 free throws, 10 below its season average, for the second consecutive game and only made 10 of them (season-low 59%). Batcho's rim-protecting presence at 6 feet 11 was a deterrent at times.
"We stuck with the game plan of trying to take away the rim and not foul them," Louisiana Tech head coach Talvin Hester said. "They go to the free throw line more than almost anyone in the country. We made them shoot threes and they were not shooting them well. Late in the game they adjusted, taking their big man out which spread us out. But, I still wanted to stick to the principles.
"They are a really good basketball team and are really well coached. I felt like every time we made an adjustment, they made an adjustment. Every time we would pull away from them they would pull right back. We knew it would be a dogfight."
Louisiana Tech, off to its best start since 2015, shot 56% from the field in the second half, including a pair of back-breaking 3s at the shot clock buzzer. The Bulldogs rank in the national top 20 for shooting at 50.2% this season. They also limited their second-half turnovers, as GCU made a season-low six steals after ranking in the top 10 nationally at 10.4 per game.
Newman said the Thomas Assembly Center atmosphere with 2,173 fans was the best he had experienced over his two seasons in Ruston.
"When you're on the road, your margin of error is so small and you've got to win by 10 when you're on the road to get it done," Drew said after GCU's first official road game of the year after playing three neutral-site games.
The Lopes' next two games will be at Global Credit Union Arena with Chicago State visiting Thursday night and Saint Louis coming on Sunday.
"We learned a lot on this road trip – a lot about our team, a lot about our players, a lot of things moving forward that we can work on," Drew said.
Mired in another difficult perimeter shooting night, the Lopes climbed out of a 13-point hole Monday night at Louisiana Tech close enough to see daylight before missing the final necessary shots again. The Bulldogs (10-2) staved off the rally by scoring on their final three possessions for a 74-66 win at Thomas Assembly Center.
GCU (6-4) missed its final four shots, all from 3-point range, to finish 6 for 27 on 3s. It marks the first time since December 2019 that the Lopes have made fewer than 30% of 3-pointers in four consecutive games.
Three of those six made 3s came in a 65-second burst from GCU reserves Lok Wur, a graduate forward, and Caleb Shaw, a sophomore guard. When senior forward JaKobe Coles made two free throws to cut the Louisiana Tech lead to 68-66 with 2:13 to go, the bench impact of Wur, Shaw and freshman point guard Styles Phipps gave the Lopes a chance to rally late for win against the Bulldogs for a second consecutive year.
But even with Lopes senior swingman Tyon Grant-Foster making a steal, GCU could not clear the hump again.
Lopes senior guard Ray Harrison missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer, and Louisiana Tech junior point guard Sean Newman Jr. completed his career night by guiding a 6-0 finish. He drove for a score, dished for a slam and made two free throws on Louisiana Tech's final three possessions to complete his night of a career-high 25 points and nine assists."Our guys have got to respond when teams bring their best at us," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "You got to bring your best back to win. I thought we had a lot of guys bring great effort, great intensity and really had a will to win. Unfortunately, we came up short at the end."
The Preseason All-WAC team duo of Grant-Foster and Harrison went 2 for 18 from the field with two-thirds of the shots being 3-point attempts (1 for 12). In the past five games, Grant-Foster is 1 for 25 from 3-point range.
"Tyon's a much better player than he's playing," Drew said. "My job as a coach is we've got to get it out of them, so we've been trying different things in the last month and we're going to keep trying more things until we get them back on track."
GCU still overcame a double-digit hole to start the game (13-2) to lead at halftime (33-32) and nearly did it again in the second half against the preseason Conference USA favorite.
In the first half, the Lopes' defensive intensity bothered Louisiana Tech for nine turnovers while Louisiana Tech star center Daniel Batcho sat for 12 of the 20 minutes because of foul trouble. With Batcho mostly off the floor, GCU scored 20 of its 33 first-half points on second chances.Coles scored 11 of his team-best 19 points in the first half, going on a one-man, 7-0 run with 3-pointer, turnaround jumper and steal for a fastbreak layup to give GCU the lead back at 23-21.
"I thought JaKobe really played with a lot of energy," Drew said. "He played basketball the right way, moved the ball, took good shots. I was really happy with his performance."
Drew cleared the bench 3 1/2 minutes into the game when Louisiana Tech was leading 10-2 and continued to go to the reserves with success. When the Bulldogs rebuilt their lead to 59-46 on consecutive Bathco alleyoop dunks with 7:57 to go, the insertion of Phipps, Shaw and Wur sparked GCU again.
Shaw scored on a backdoor slam and Phipps drove for a layup before Wur sank back-to-back 3s. Despite the team's long-distance woes, Wur has made 8 of 11 shots from 3-point range in the past three games and averaged 12.3 points in 16.3 minutes per game during that stretch.GCU outscored Louisiana Tech by 12 in Phipps' 13 minutes and by nine in Shaw's 14 minutes. The four starting returnees had negative plus-minus ratings in the double digits, as the Lopes shot 40% or less from the field for a second consecutive game.
"Doing a back-to-back, basically, after a super-physical Georgia game for 40 minutes, I think you saw the legs come out a little bit on some of our 3-point shooting on guys," Drew said.
"I love the willingness of the guys off the bench to come in and play pure basketball. They work really hard in practice every day, and they want to win. So I was really proud of their effort."
GCU also only shot 17 free throws, 10 below its season average, for the second consecutive game and only made 10 of them (season-low 59%). Batcho's rim-protecting presence at 6 feet 11 was a deterrent at times.
"We stuck with the game plan of trying to take away the rim and not foul them," Louisiana Tech head coach Talvin Hester said. "They go to the free throw line more than almost anyone in the country. We made them shoot threes and they were not shooting them well. Late in the game they adjusted, taking their big man out which spread us out. But, I still wanted to stick to the principles.
"They are a really good basketball team and are really well coached. I felt like every time we made an adjustment, they made an adjustment. Every time we would pull away from them they would pull right back. We knew it would be a dogfight."
Louisiana Tech, off to its best start since 2015, shot 56% from the field in the second half, including a pair of back-breaking 3s at the shot clock buzzer. The Bulldogs rank in the national top 20 for shooting at 50.2% this season. They also limited their second-half turnovers, as GCU made a season-low six steals after ranking in the top 10 nationally at 10.4 per game.Newman said the Thomas Assembly Center atmosphere with 2,173 fans was the best he had experienced over his two seasons in Ruston.
"When you're on the road, your margin of error is so small and you've got to win by 10 when you're on the road to get it done," Drew said after GCU's first official road game of the year after playing three neutral-site games.
The Lopes' next two games will be at Global Credit Union Arena with Chicago State visiting Thursday night and Saint Louis coming on Sunday.
"We learned a lot on this road trip – a lot about our team, a lot about our players, a lot of things moving forward that we can work on," Drew said.
Team Stats
GCU
LATech
FG%
.403
.519
3FG%
.222
.350
FT%
.588
.786
RB
35
34
TO
12
13
STL
6
6
Game Leaders
Pts
19
FGM
7
3FGM
1
FTM
4
Pts
13
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Pts
7
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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