Declaration of Wur expands Lopes look for UVU trip

Saturday, February 3

Orem, Utah

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Utah Valley

Phoenix, AZ Feb. 1, , 2024 : GCU beats Seattle 95-88 in OT at Global Credit Union Arena. . David Kadlubowski/GCU

Photo by: David Kadlubowski

2/2/2024 12:01:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

GCU Notes UVU Notes

GCU plays on road for 4th time in 5 games, puts nation-best 20-2 record to test

By: Paul Coro

Saturday, Feb. 3 \| 2 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| UCCU Center \| Orem, Utah

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (20-2, 10-1 WAC)	at	UTAH VALLEY WOLVERINES (9-12, 4-6 WAC)

WATCH: ESPN+ \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic \| STATS: View

OREM, Utah – With Grand Canyon holding the best record in the nation in recent weeks, it might seem difficult to still find lineup tweaks that improve the Lopes.

But in turning more to graduate forward Lök Wur recently, GCU remained successful while tapping into a versatile bench resource for a career game Thursday night. The Lopes take a 20-2 record to Saturday's 2 p.m. game at Utah Valley with all-out Wur in the rotation.

The Oregon transfer's work ethic and practice play had been consistently praised throughout this season by GCU head coach Bryce Drew, who has nearly doubled Wur's playing time in the past 11 games (15.6 minutes per game) vs. his first 11 appearances (8.5 minutes per game).

That faith was rewarded Saturday when Wur made arguably the biggest shot of the game — a 3-pointer during a 13-0 run at UT Arlington — and then gave possibly his best performance as a college player in Thursday night's win against Seattle U.

Lok Wur

"At first, it just was where I could find to how I'd help the team," Wur said. "I was finding my niche. That took some time – an adjustment period. Now I'm feeling more comfortable every game, and it's starting to show."

In the win against Seattle U, Wur set a career high for points (13) and matched a career high for rebounds (eight) in a game against a Division I opponent. He also made 5 of 9 shots in 24 bench minutes. The playing time matched a career high vs. a D-I team, dating back to 2022 as a late-developing Ducks forward.

At 6 feet 9 with a 7-1 wingspan, Wur can play frontline defense with mobility and length while having the ball skills and game acumen offensively to stretch a defense.

"Lök brings a lot of length," Drew said. "He finishes around the rim. He can still make more plays than what he even made (Thursday night). We've seen him make consecutive 3s. We've seen him finish above the rim. It's nice to see his game piecing and coming together and him making the plays that he's making right now."

Wur came to GCU as a graduate transfer in the summer after playing sparingly until his final two years at Oregon. He ended last season as a starter in NIT games because of injury and joined the Lopes after finishing his Political Science and International Studies degree last summer.

Lok Wur

"I'm just blessed to be here," Wur said. "I'm just glad I got to join such a great program, a great community and university. Everything has been what they explained on the visit during recruiting. I'm just trying to take this opportunity and make the most of it."

That was evident Thursday night as he continues to be one of Drew's first substitutions. With confidence growing, Wur was immediately aggressive in making a turnaround bank shot in the lane, a follow score, two free throws and a fadeaway before sinking a 3-pointer to cap his 11-point first half.

Wur, who was born in Omaha, Nebraska, a year after his mother moved from South Sudan, always was considered a late bloomer because he began playing organized basketball in seventh grade and redshirted his first year in Oregon.

Upon arrival in Phoenix, Wur and Drew each said that his best basketball was ahead of him. His recent emergence is a testimony to that.

"From our head coach to our coaches to my teammates to the managers, I am thankful for them," Wur said. "They stuck with me and helped me stay positive through the ups and downs."

GCU defeated Utah Vallety 78-65 in the teams' first meeting on Jan. 18 in Phoenix. The Lopes shot 53% from the field in that game to the Wolverines' 36% clip, but Utah Valley is 7-1 at home this season with the only loss coming to Liberty (79-63 on Dec. 20). The Wolverines are 23-2 at home over the past two seasons.

"We're very thankful for the 20-2," Drew said. "We're going to enjoy this one and try to garner up all our emotion and all our energy to try to play our best on Saturday."

Lope tracks

GCU has won four of its past five meetings with Utah Valley but has only played once (February 2022) in Orem in the previous three seasons.
The Lopes are shooting 83% from the free throw line and averaging 23.3 points on free throws in the past three games.
GCU graduate point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. needs a point to pass Chad Briscoe for ninth place on the program's all-time scoring list.
Lopes junior guard Ray Harrison ranks 13th nationally for career scoring average (16.7) among active Division I players.
GCU graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan ranks 14th among active Division I players for career rebounds (960). He also moved into 13th place on the all-time GCU scoring list Thursday night with 1,214 points as a Lope to pass T.C. Dean.
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.
GCU is one of six teams in the nation to rank in the top 60 for scoring offense and scoring defense.
The Lopes rank in the national top 30 for free throws made per game (fourth, 19.1), blocks per game (14th, 5.4) and scoring margin (30th, plus-12.5 per game).
Utah Valley ranks 28th nationally for free throw attempts per game but only makes 69.4% of those chances.
The Wolverines have the ninth-worst 3-point percentage in the nation at 27.1% this season. Redshirt freshman guard Tanner Toolson leads the team in 3-point attempts and has drastically improved his accuracy in the past four games (13 for 27, 48%) after previously being at 24%.
Utah Valley leads the WAC in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.14 to 1. Guards Drake Allen and Jaden McClanahan have nearly half of the team's assists and a combined ration of 1.98 to 1.
Thursday's home game was attended by several Valley sports figures, including Arizona Diamondbacks stars Corbin Caroll and Gabriel Moreno, former Phoenix Suns star and head coach Jeff Hornacek and former Suns player Ish Wainwright. who is the cousin of Grant-Foster.

WAC Resume Seeding System (updated Feb. 2)
Rank	Team	Record (WAC only)	WAC points
1.	GCU	20-2 (10-1)	7.17
2.	Tarleton State	14-7 (7-3)	0.71
3.	Seattle U	12-9 (5-5)	0.16
4.	Stephen F. Austin	13-8 (6-4)	0.07
5.	California Baptist	13-7 (6-3)	-0.50
6.	UT Arlington	10-11 (5-5)	-0.99
7.	Utah Valley	9-12 (4-6)	-1.88
8.	Utah Tech	8-13 (4-6)	-3.49
9.	Southern Utah	8-13 (3-7)	-3.93
10.	Abilene Christian	8-13 (3-7)	-4.21
11.	UT Rio Grande Valley	6-15 (2-8)	-6.53

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.