Thursday, Feb. 15 | 7 p.m. | Global Credit Union Arena | Phoenix, Ariz.
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UTAH TECH
TRAILBLAZERS
(10-13, 6-7 WAC)
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GRAND CANYON
LOPES
(22-2, 12-1 WAC) |
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With the rigors of a basketball season, continual improvement is a challenge.
With an older team, individual improvements can be even harder to attain.
But as Grand Canyon vies to tie for the nation's best record with a Thursday night home win against Utah Tech, the Lopes can say that each of their core players is still getting better.
The program advanced to NCAA tournaments twice in head coach
Bryce Drew's first three seasons, but this team is even a large leap ahead of last season's squad that went on a late-season run. These Lopes never rest on their laurels, going from ending a 14-game winning streak (third longest in the nation this season) to being on another run with five consecutive wins.

"We think they're better players now than they were in the fall," Drew said. "Hopefully, they're better decision-makers. A lot of it is getting comfortable with each other and knowing the system."
The obvious recent growth has been in bench play. Graduate point guard
Jovan Blacksher Jr. went 11 months without being in a game, changed to a bench role and went scoreless for four games before scoring 18 points in 18 minutes on Saturday night.
"I'm just taking this opportunity to learn how to play from the bench, come in and have energy and bring energy," Blacksher said. "I'm just learning and having good experiences."
Another reserve, graduate forward
Lök Wur, is on a streak of setting, tying and breaking his career scoring high vs. a Division I opponent in three consecutive games. In that stretch, he is averaging 12 points on 50% shooting with 6-of-11 3-point shooting. Wur averaged 2 points per game in 51 career appearances at Oregon.
Wur, a 6-foot-9 forward, also has averages of 7.7 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 2.0 blocks per game with a total of two turnovers in those three games.
"Lök's been killing it recently," GCU sophomore center
Duke Brennan said. "We've seen it all year with how much he's improved.
"Working with a group like this, you start to play off each other and help each other. Getting wins and finding ourselves as a team earlier allowed us to individually improve."

Brennan is the player at the career stage with an expected growth arc. He has more than doubled the minutes that he played as a freshman at Arizona State last season (9.0 to 22.2). But the improvement is more apparent with increased per-40 minute averages in points and rebounds while decreasing his foul frequency.
In season, Brennan has improved his rebounding from 5.3 boards per game in the first 15 games to 8.2 per game over the past nine games. He has as many offensive rebounds in those nine games (32) as he did in the first 15.
"All these seniors' and juniors have knowledge and playing with these dudes has improved my game tremendously," Brennan said. "I listen to them. The other side of learning is listening. I get a lot of information from our leaders."
The rest of the starting unit has shown similar growth in areas.
Senior guard
Tyon Grant-Foster burst onto the scene as a scorer. But even as his shooting has tailed to 33% in the past six games, he has continued to score by getting to the free throw line for nearly six points per game and averaged 6.2 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.2 blocks in that stretch.

Junior guard
Collin Moore has drawn fouls more often lately and is making free throws at a career-best clip of 79.5%. He sank 26 of 34 free throws in the past seven games after only shooting 39 free throws in his first 17 games this season.
Shifting from scorer to playmaker more at GCU, Moore has more assists (54) in 24 games than he did in 52 career games at Georgia State (43).
During the Lopes' five-game winning streak, senior guard
Ray Harrison continues to show his growth as a point guard with a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio (20 assists, 10 turnovers). Backup senior guard
Josh Baker returned from shoulder rehabilitation with recurring turnover issues but has become as reliable with the ball (no turnovers in nine of the past 11 games) as he is defensively against ball-handlling or scoring guards.
After all the success of a 100-start career, graduate power forward
Gabe McGlothan had his first foul-less game of the season Saturday night. He is averaging career highs in points (15.0 per game), rebounds (7.7), assists (1.3), steals (1.2) and blocks (0.9) while going from 34% career 3-point shooting to 44% this season.
GCU still is seeking its first outright WAC regular-season championship while trying to improve its NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking for tournament seeding and at-large bid candidacy.
"It's getting close to the end," Drew said. "We have seven (regular-season) games left. Conference tournament, we need to be focused. We need to get better in every game and try to take a step forward."
Lope tracks
- GCU won the first meeting against Utah Tech 75-65 in St. George, Utah, on Jan. 6, when they rallied from a 16-point deficit.
- Grant-Foster ranks 52nd in the nation with a team-leading 19.0 points per game.
- Blacksher needs 17 points to pass Chad Briscoe for seventh place on the program's all-time scoring list.
- McGlothan needs 12 points to pass DeWayne Russell for 11th place on the program's all-time scoring list.
- Harrison ranks 14th nationally for career scoring average (16.8) among active Division I players.
- McGlothan ranks 14th among active Division I players for career rebounds (977).
- The Lopes' 14-game winning streak from Nov. 25 to Jan. 18 is tied for the third-longest in the nation this season. It was the Lopes' longest winning streak since 1978-79.
- The Lopes rank in the national top 25 for free throws made per game (third, 19.4), blocks per game (12th, 5.4), scoring margin (15th, plus-13.5 per game) and rebounding margin (23rd, plus-6.7 per game).
- Utah Tech defeated Southern Utah 70-68 and California Baptist 85-78 last week to complete a 3-1 homestand.
- Trailblazers junior Jaelen Searles won WAC Player of the Week after scoring 13 against Southern Utah and 33 against California Baptist. The 6-foot-8 junior college transfer has scored in double figures in five consecutive games after not doing so in more than two consecutively.
- Utah Tech has lost seven consecutive road games. Its last away win came Dec. 6 at California Baptist.
WAC Resume Seeding System (updated Feb. 11)
|
Rank |
Team |
Record (WAC only) |
WAC points |
1. |
GCU |
22-2 (12-1) |
7.96 |
2. |
Tarleton State |
17-7 (10-3) |
2.26 |
3. |
Seattle U |
14-10 (7-6) |
0.24 |
4. |
Stephen F. Austin |
14-10 (7-6) |
-0.72 |
5. |
UT Arlington |
12-12 (7-6) |
-0.76 |
6. |
California Baptist |
14-9 (7-5) |
-1.31 |
7. |
Utah Valley |
10-14 (5-8) |
-2.64 |
8. |
Utah Tech |
10-14 (6-7) |
-3.64 |
9. |
Southern Utah |
9-15 (4-9) |
-4.67 |
10. |
Abilene Christian |
8-15 (3-9) |
-4.92 |
11. |
UT Rio Grande Valley |
6-17 (2-10) |
-7.42 |
The WAC Resume Seeding System will determine seeding for the eight-team WAC Tournament. The top two seeds will receive first- and second-round byes. The third and fourth seeds will receive first-round byes.