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
Sunday, March 24
Spokane, Wash. / Spokane Arena
4:10 p.m.
Grand Canyon
30-5,17-3WAC
61
vs
72
Alabama
23-11,13-5SEC
1
2
F
Grand Canyon
30
31
61
Alabama
38
34
72
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
Historic season takes 2nd-round knockout
3/24/2024 9:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
GCU's late lead puts scare into Alabama before Lopes fall 72-61 with Tide's 10-0 finish
SPOKANE, Wash. – Grand Canyon's historic season loaded up with 30 victories, 16 home wins without a loss, two WAC championship celebrations, two victories against top-25 teams and one conference scoring champion.
But GCU needed a different final six minutes to add another chapter to its storied season.
The Lopes built a national bandwagon as an NCAA tournament No. 12 seed nearly reaching the Sweet 16, but the remarkable run came to a crushing halt Sunday night in the second round. The Lopes' 58-55 lead on Alabama with six minutes remaining became a 72-61 loss at Spokane Arena, ending the winningest GCU season in 35 years and the latest launchpad for Division I's fastest-rising program.
The Lopes (30-5) suffered their third-worst shooting night of the season (32.1%) with a season-low five assists, but they tamed the Crimson Tide's nation-leading offense. Alabama scored 19 points below its season average, 37 fewer than its first-round total and one more than its season scoring low to put GCU within six minutes of making March madder.
"They battled and they fought and they found ways to stay in the game and manufacture points," said Lopes head coach Bryce Drew, who has led three Lopes teams to NCAA tourney trips in four years. "There are so many similarities with life and basketball. They survived out there. They fought out there. They didn't quit out there. Those are characteristics they will take with them beyond GCU with their families and life."
GCU
senior guard Tyon Grant-Foster, "the real deal" as Alabama head coach Nate Oats called him, came within a point of his career high with 29 points and shared team leads for rebounds (eight), blocked shots (three) and steals (two). His final two baskets were as dynamic as ever — a fastbreak 3-point play and a spinning pull-up that put GCU ahead 58-55 with 6:03 remaining.
"We knew we had a chance to win that game," Grant-Foster said. "I say we were just one rebound away from winning that game. We get one rebound, the game's turned.
"We could play with the best of the best in the country."
Instead, Alabama (23-11) answered with a five-point, 44-second possession with four offensive rebounds, including two off missed free throws. Drew called it "deflating."
The nation's No. 19 team finished with 20 offensive rebounds, the second most that the Lopes had allowed all season. Half of them came from the Crimson Tide bench, where Alabama also enjoyed a 20-2 scoring advantage in a physical, energetic battle that secured its third Sweet 16 trip in five years.
GCU followed its nine-block Friday game with eight more blocks on Sunday. Graduate power forward Lök Wur swatted the last one between two Grant-Foster free throw trips, where he made 3 of 4 to cut Alabama's lead to 62-61 with 4:05 to go. After the Crimson Tide retook the lead, three Lopes chances to tie the score ended in a dropped pass, a missed free throw and a missed 3-pointer.
GCU did not score for the final four minutes, with Grant-Foster missing on the next three trips as Alabama fouled out Wur and used another second chance to begin its 10-0 closeout.
"Man, these guys are fighters," Drew said. "If you would've told me before the game that we were going to shoot 10% from 3, 32% from 3, 62% from the free throw line and be up with six minutes left, there's no way I would've believed you.
"The fight of these guys, the will, the togetherness, the no quit in them was really fun to be part of."
GCU ran into another scoring star in Alabama point guard Mark Sears, a 6-foot-1 dynamo who more than made up for backcourt mate Latrell Wrightsell Jr. leaving with a first-half head injury. At halftime, Wrightsell greeted the team and Sears said they pledged to win it for him to play in the Sweet 16.
After scoring 30 points in Alabama's first-round win against Charleston, Sears scored 26 points on Sunday with gam
e highs for rebounds (12) and assists (six). He also had three steals while making 5 of 11 shots from 3-point range.
"Sears wasn't going to lose," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. "He wasn't letting us lose. A lot of that was how blue collar and tough he was. He was great on defense. I thought it was his best defensive game."
Sears had backing form Rylan Griffen's 13 points and 20 bench points, while no other Lopes player reached double figures besides Grant-Foster. He accounted for half of GCU's made field goals and his teammates went 0 for 13 on 3-pointers.
As GCU went through a drastic style change from facing slow-mo Saint Mary's, Alabama implemented its pace early but not its scoring. After nine minutes of play, GCU led 9-8 for its last lead until it made the late-game run.
The Crimson Tide went 2 for 17 before finding the switch with back-to-back Sears 3-pointers. The Lopes kept pace with free throws from graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan and a game-tying 3-pointer by Grant-Foster with 2:50 until halftime.
But like the close of the second half, Alabama dominated the first-half finish with a 10-2 run for a 38-30 halftime lead. The Crimson Tide scored on the final 11 possessions of the first half, when GCU went 9 for 31. Grant-Foster was 5 for 11, but the rest of the Lopes were 4 for 20.
"Their length and speed gave us a lot of problems," Drew said. "Some of our shots, I thought we had really good looks. We just didn't make them."
The same scoring slugfest defined the start of the second half, when GCU outscored Alabama 11-10 over the first 10 minutes. The Lopes' propensity for free throws (they rank third in the nation) paid off again with the bonus situation allowing GCU to creep back until key defensive plays allow the Lopes to lead. However, GCU only made 23 of 37 free throws for the game.
Lopes junior guard Collin Moore's and sophomore center Duke Brennan's steals set up GCU's go-ahead possessions for that 58-55 lead with 6:03 remaining, when Oats said "that thing got loud" in reference to the massive Lopes throng that won over other fans to join their support.
"When we were down 10, being able to come back and fight, it was for each other and just being connected," McGlothan said. "Unfortunately, the ball just didn't bounce our way toward the end, and they got the best of us. But the one thing is I can sit here and say that this bond was never broken and that love that we have for each other, that fight, was never once tested and lost."
Before leaving the Spokane Arena floor, the Lopes players walked toward an entire section of GCU fans to acknowledge their support, as McGlothan put up a heart sign in his final moment in a Lopes uniform. The Lopes won over Spokane Arena for the first two rounds, and a national television audience saw the campus passion of thousands more with cutaways to a watch party at Global Credit Union Arena.
"I was getting poured into the whole time by just the GCU community as a whole," McGlothan said. "So I'm just so blessed to have been a part of it and to be a Lope for life. I couldn't be more grateful."
But GCU needed a different final six minutes to add another chapter to its storied season.
The Lopes built a national bandwagon as an NCAA tournament No. 12 seed nearly reaching the Sweet 16, but the remarkable run came to a crushing halt Sunday night in the second round. The Lopes' 58-55 lead on Alabama with six minutes remaining became a 72-61 loss at Spokane Arena, ending the winningest GCU season in 35 years and the latest launchpad for Division I's fastest-rising program.The Lopes (30-5) suffered their third-worst shooting night of the season (32.1%) with a season-low five assists, but they tamed the Crimson Tide's nation-leading offense. Alabama scored 19 points below its season average, 37 fewer than its first-round total and one more than its season scoring low to put GCU within six minutes of making March madder.
"They battled and they fought and they found ways to stay in the game and manufacture points," said Lopes head coach Bryce Drew, who has led three Lopes teams to NCAA tourney trips in four years. "There are so many similarities with life and basketball. They survived out there. They fought out there. They didn't quit out there. Those are characteristics they will take with them beyond GCU with their families and life."
GCU
senior guard Tyon Grant-Foster, "the real deal" as Alabama head coach Nate Oats called him, came within a point of his career high with 29 points and shared team leads for rebounds (eight), blocked shots (three) and steals (two). His final two baskets were as dynamic as ever — a fastbreak 3-point play and a spinning pull-up that put GCU ahead 58-55 with 6:03 remaining."We knew we had a chance to win that game," Grant-Foster said. "I say we were just one rebound away from winning that game. We get one rebound, the game's turned.
"We could play with the best of the best in the country."
Instead, Alabama (23-11) answered with a five-point, 44-second possession with four offensive rebounds, including two off missed free throws. Drew called it "deflating."
The nation's No. 19 team finished with 20 offensive rebounds, the second most that the Lopes had allowed all season. Half of them came from the Crimson Tide bench, where Alabama also enjoyed a 20-2 scoring advantage in a physical, energetic battle that secured its third Sweet 16 trip in five years.
GCU followed its nine-block Friday game with eight more blocks on Sunday. Graduate power forward Lök Wur swatted the last one between two Grant-Foster free throw trips, where he made 3 of 4 to cut Alabama's lead to 62-61 with 4:05 to go. After the Crimson Tide retook the lead, three Lopes chances to tie the score ended in a dropped pass, a missed free throw and a missed 3-pointer.
GCU did not score for the final four minutes, with Grant-Foster missing on the next three trips as Alabama fouled out Wur and used another second chance to begin its 10-0 closeout.
"Man, these guys are fighters," Drew said. "If you would've told me before the game that we were going to shoot 10% from 3, 32% from 3, 62% from the free throw line and be up with six minutes left, there's no way I would've believed you."The fight of these guys, the will, the togetherness, the no quit in them was really fun to be part of."
GCU ran into another scoring star in Alabama point guard Mark Sears, a 6-foot-1 dynamo who more than made up for backcourt mate Latrell Wrightsell Jr. leaving with a first-half head injury. At halftime, Wrightsell greeted the team and Sears said they pledged to win it for him to play in the Sweet 16.
After scoring 30 points in Alabama's first-round win against Charleston, Sears scored 26 points on Sunday with gam
e highs for rebounds (12) and assists (six). He also had three steals while making 5 of 11 shots from 3-point range."Sears wasn't going to lose," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. "He wasn't letting us lose. A lot of that was how blue collar and tough he was. He was great on defense. I thought it was his best defensive game."
Sears had backing form Rylan Griffen's 13 points and 20 bench points, while no other Lopes player reached double figures besides Grant-Foster. He accounted for half of GCU's made field goals and his teammates went 0 for 13 on 3-pointers.
As GCU went through a drastic style change from facing slow-mo Saint Mary's, Alabama implemented its pace early but not its scoring. After nine minutes of play, GCU led 9-8 for its last lead until it made the late-game run.
The Crimson Tide went 2 for 17 before finding the switch with back-to-back Sears 3-pointers. The Lopes kept pace with free throws from graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan and a game-tying 3-pointer by Grant-Foster with 2:50 until halftime.
But like the close of the second half, Alabama dominated the first-half finish with a 10-2 run for a 38-30 halftime lead. The Crimson Tide scored on the final 11 possessions of the first half, when GCU went 9 for 31. Grant-Foster was 5 for 11, but the rest of the Lopes were 4 for 20.
"Their length and speed gave us a lot of problems," Drew said. "Some of our shots, I thought we had really good looks. We just didn't make them."
The same scoring slugfest defined the start of the second half, when GCU outscored Alabama 11-10 over the first 10 minutes. The Lopes' propensity for free throws (they rank third in the nation) paid off again with the bonus situation allowing GCU to creep back until key defensive plays allow the Lopes to lead. However, GCU only made 23 of 37 free throws for the game.
Lopes junior guard Collin Moore's and sophomore center Duke Brennan's steals set up GCU's go-ahead possessions for that 58-55 lead with 6:03 remaining, when Oats said "that thing got loud" in reference to the massive Lopes throng that won over other fans to join their support.
"When we were down 10, being able to come back and fight, it was for each other and just being connected," McGlothan said. "Unfortunately, the ball just didn't bounce our way toward the end, and they got the best of us. But the one thing is I can sit here and say that this bond was never broken and that love that we have for each other, that fight, was never once tested and lost."
Before leaving the Spokane Arena floor, the Lopes players walked toward an entire section of GCU fans to acknowledge their support, as McGlothan put up a heart sign in his final moment in a Lopes uniform. The Lopes won over Spokane Arena for the first two rounds, and a national television audience saw the campus passion of thousands more with cutaways to a watch party at Global Credit Union Arena.
"I was getting poured into the whole time by just the GCU community as a whole," McGlothan said. "So I'm just so blessed to have been a part of it and to be a Lope for life. I couldn't be more grateful."
Team Stats
GCU
Bama
FG%
.321
.369
3FG%
.100
.258
FT%
.622
.727
RB
41
50
TO
14
14
STL
10
10
Game Leaders
Pts
29
FGM
9
3FGM
2
FTM
9
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
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