WAC title game pits Lopes vs. red-hot Mavericks

Saturday, March 15 \| 8:30 p.m. \| WAC Tournament championship \| Orleans Arena \| Las Vegas, Nev.

	#3 UT ARLINGTON MAVERICKS (20-13)	vs.	#1 GRAND CANYON LOPES (28-4)

WATCH: ESPN2, ESPN+ \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic \| STATS: View

LAS VEGAS – Throughout Grand Canyon's greatest season of its Division I era, the Lopes have displayed the chemistry, sacrifice and resiliency that it takes to turn a talented team into a championship team.

The Lopes' common goal to repeat as WAC Tournament champions is a win away. No. 1 seed GCU (28-4) will play No. 3 seed UT Arlington (20-13) for the tourney trophy and an NCAA tournament automatic berth at 8:30 p.m. Saturday in Orleans Arena.

Las Vegas, NV March 15, 2024 : GCU beats Seattle 80-72 in their semifinal game during the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas. The Lopes advance to the finals. David Kadlubowski/GCU

Las Vegas, NV March 15, 2024 : GCU beats Seattle 80-72 in their semifinal game during the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas. The Lopes advance to the finals. David Kadlubowski/GCU

The game, which ESPN2 will broadcast, will pit GCU's season-long conference supremacy against UT Arlington's late-season surge. The Mavericks enter with an eight-game winning streak after rallying from a 13-point, second-half deficit to oust No. 2 seed Tarleton State 87-84 in the late Friday tournament semifinal.

Even if a Tarleton State semifinal win had given GCU the NCAA spot because Tarleton State is in its last Division I transition year, the Lopes were motivated to check off their second season goal of capturing the program's third WAC Tournament championship in four years.

"These guys are competitors," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "We know winning championships is extremely difficult. We're going to prep tonight the best we can and try to be at our best."

Even before UT Arlington's winning streak, the Mavericks were challenging in each regular-season loss to the Lopes. The Mavericks held second-half, double-digit leads in both meetings with GCU, which rallied to win 76-69 at home on Dec. 2 and 67-61 in Arlington on Jan. 27.

First-year UT Arlington head coach KT Turner, who assisted the previous three seasons at Kentucky, Oklahoma and Texas, quickly has turned around a program that went 11-21 last season.

Grant-Foster vs. Wilson

The Mavericks already had a returning star in Tolleson High School and Phoenix College product Shemar Wilson, a 6-foot-9 senior who tied his career high with 29 points in Friday night's win.

UT Arlington also added junior guard Phillip Russell in mid-December when two-time transfers were ruled eligible. The 5-foot-10 guard, who led Southeast Missouri to the NCAA tournament last season, became the Mavericks' leading scorer at 14.5 points per game in mostly a bench role until starting four of the past five games.

Russell scored 30 points in the quarterfinal against Stephen F. Austin and had an 18-point, 10-assist game in the semifinal against Tarleton State. Also in the semifinal, former New Mexico State, Missouri and Kansas State player DaJuan Gordon registered his WAC-best 13th double-double as a 6-foot-5 guard.

UT Arlington is playing its third game in three days vs. GCU's No. 1 seed advancing it to Friday's semifinal. But the Mavericks already avenged a similar scenario, losing a pair of two-point games to Tarleton State in the regular season before getting a Brandyn Talbot tiebreaking 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds remaining to beat the Texans on Friday night.

"We just have to come with our minds right," said Turner, whose team is shooting 50.4% from the field and 41.3% from 3-point range during its eight-game winning streak. "We have to play super hard and see if we can make something happen."

Las Vegas, NV March 15, 2024 : GCU beats Seattle 80-72 in their semifinal game during the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas. The Lopes advance to the finals. David Kadlubowski/GCU

This will be graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan's third WAC Tournament championship appearance and the second for graduate point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr., junior guard Ray Harrison and senior guard Josh Baker. Blacksher was on each of the first two WAC Tournament championship teams but could not play last year after knee surgery.

"Being here with this energy and this crowd, I understand what we've got at stake," Blacksher said. "It gets me going.

"This team is special. The path that we have right now, the story is going well. To keep it up and do it with these types of guys is amazing."

One of the controllable factors in GCU's favor will be the crowd. Lope Nation will take over Orleans Arena, even more so than Friday night with a larger Havocs presence and the return of the fans who painted the arena purple Friday night.

"It's so fun when you walk out and see a sea of purple everywhere," Drew said. "When they made the announcements, you just heard the roar of the crowd. It's really special, our fan base and what they bring to our team and what they bring to the arena and what they bring to college basketball."

Lope tracks

GCU moved to No. 51 on Saturday in the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings, used in NCAA tournament seeding.
GCU is 7-0 in WAC Tournament games when it is the higher seed.
Grant-Foster is the first Division I player to average 19.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.4 blocks in at least 20 games since Duke's Zion Williamson and CSUN's Lamine Diane in 2018-19.
Grant-Foster ranks 40th nationally in scoring average.
McGlothan ranks ninth in GCU career scoring with 1,301 points, which is 12 behind eighth-place Chad Briscoe.
Blacksher Jr. ranks seventh in GCU career scoring with 1,336 points, which is 37 behind sixth-place Doug Baker.
Blacksher also ranks second in GCU career assists with 428, 27 behind Craig Russell's record.
Harrison ranks 21st nationally for career scoring average (16.4) among active Division I players.
The Lopes rank in the national top 15 for opponent field goal percentage (14th, 40.2%), free throws made per game (sixth, 18.4), blocks per game (10th, 5.4) and scoring margin (11th, plus-12.8 points per game).
Brennan is averaging 9.2 points with 71% shooting over the past six games.
Wur is averaging 10.5 points per game in 20.2 minutes per game over the past 11 games. Previously, he averaged 2.2 points per game in 20 games vs. D-I opponents.
UT Arlington ranks highly nationally in several categories: assists per game (35th, 15.9), 3-pointers made per game (39th, 8.9), free throws made per game (41st, 16.2) and opponent turnovers per game (54th, 13.7)
The ESPN2 broadcast will be called by play-by-play announcer Dave Feldman and analyst Mike O'Donnell.

For a recap of the last GCU-UT Arlington meeting, read here.

Saturday, March 15 | 8:30 p.m. | WAC Tournament championship | Orleans Arena | Las Vegas, Nev.

Lope tracks

Players Mentioned

Josh Baker

Jovan Blacksher Jr.

Ray Harrison

Gabe McGlothan

Grand Canyon University Athletics