Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball at Baylor on October 10, 2025 at 2 p.m. (MST)
M Basketball
2 p.m. (MST)
at Baylor
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Grand Canyon University Athletics
Saturday, March 9
Riverside, Calif.
6 p.m. (MST)
Grand Canyon
27-4,17-3WAC
68
at
47
California Baptist
15-16,8-12WAC
1
2
F
Grand Canyon
41
27
68
California Baptist
21
26
47
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
WAC title belongs solely to Lopes after road rout
3/9/2024 10:28:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
Dominant defense sends GCU to its 1st outright WAC championship
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Grand Canyon is fine with sharing the basketball. The Lopes share credit, and they share joy.
GCU is not interested in sharing the WAC championship.
The Lopes won their first outright WAC regular-season championship Saturday night with an emphatic 68-47 rout at California Baptist to send GCU into the WAC Tournament off three consecutive wins by more than 20 points each.
With their defense holding CBU to 27.1% shooting, the Lopes (27-4, 17-3 WAC) matched the highest win total of their Division I era with 2015-16 and slapped an exclamation point on their second WAC regular-season title by finishing a game ahead of Tarleton State. Over a 17-minute stretch that bridged halftime, GCU outscored CBU 33-4
"It's a great feeling to be able to continue to make history and have the first outright championship," said Lopes graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan, who has been at GCU since 2019-20. "Last time (2021-22), it was OK that we did something, but we had to share it. It feels like a participation trophy at some points when you share it. This time, it feels like, 'This is ours.' It's nice to have that mark for GCU where next year everyone knows GCU was the champion last year."
The Lopes are taking a defensive riptide into next week's WAC Tournament, where they get two rounds of byes to start the postseason in a 6 p.m. Friday semifinal at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
GCU has held opponents to an average of 24.8 points per half over its past five halves of basketball. On Saturday night, the Lancers' 27.1% shooting was the worst that a home team has shot against the Lopes since CSU Bakersfield shot 24.5% in March 2017. It was the 14th-lowest clip by any home team in the nation this season.
GCU's 180-degree turn as a shot-blocking team from years past was a huge part of that. The Lopes entered Saturday with the nation's 13th-highest blocks average (5.3 per game) and pumped that up with 10 swats, one off their season high.
Lopes sophomore center Duke Brennan recorded a career-high four blocks, all coming in the game's first seven minutes to set GCU's defensive tone in front of an overflow crowd of 5,363 fans, 60 of which were Brennan's friends and relatives.
"I loved their focus and determination coming out," said Lopes head coach Bryce Drew, whose team ranks seventh nationally in winning percentage (.871). "All the seedings were already set before tipoff. Everybody knew when they were going to play next week and who they were playing. And for them to come out with that energy and sustain it coming out of the locker room at halftime, it was just really fun to be on the sideline and watch it all."
California Baptist took a 17-16 lead with 10:40 remaining in the first half but did not score for 6 1/2 minutes and nearly went the rest of the half without a field goal. A tip-in with five seconds to go put GCU's halftime lead at 41-21 with senior guard Tyon Grant-Foster following up a 29-point game last Saturday with a 17-point first half this Saturday.
Grant-Foster was unguardable for a stretch again. A GCU 16-0 run started with a Brennan 3-point play and continued with nine consecutive points by Grant-Foster, whose tear began with two free throws for Lancers head coach Rick Croy's technical foul in a two-point game.
Grant-Foster scored all on three levels with a 3-pointer, a drive and a mid-range during that stretch, and the Lopes kept overwhelming a Lancers team that lost leading scorer Dominique Daniels Jr. to a knee injury last month and lost recent top threat Scotty Washington to an arm injury 42 seconds into Saturday's game.
CBU missed 14 consecutive field goals, four of which did not get to the rim because of three blocks and an airball.
A defense holding an opponent to 25% shooting on its home court seemed difficult to replicate, but GCU kept CBU to 29% second-half shooting. And nearly half of the Lancers' second-half points came with their regulars going against Lopes reserves late in the game.
"They were motivated," Drew said of GCU's pursuit of its preseason goal for its first outright title. "This was totally on them. They wanted to play their last regular-season game the right way. They wanted to go out with a win and feel good about it."
Grant-Foster finished with 19 points, giving him 19.4 points per game this season to secure the WAC scoring title. He followed up his 14-for-14 free throw shooting game against Stephen F. Austin by making 6 of 6 at CBU, just as the Lopes did not miss a free throw for the second consecutive game (22 for 22 vs. SFA, 9 for 9 vs. CBU).
Brennan posted the second-best scoring game of his career with 14 points, including nine of GCU's first 19 points when the Lancers switched on all screens and often left Brennan's rolls to double the ball-handlers.
The Lopes were not rattled by CBU's tactics and only made turnovers, one off their season low against North Dakota State.
"My teammates were really finding me in those quick slips," Brennan said. "They were switching those ball screens 1 through 5, so the 5 man was out on our guards and I'd slip, and the guards were able to find me.
"Everyone is a threat on our team. With them coming off ball screens or them spacing the floor, people will get confused. People will be like, 'Oh, should I go out and guard two on one on Tyon?' "
GCU junior guard Ray Harrison led the team with five assists and had 10 points to be one of four double-digit Lopes scorers with Grant-Foster, Brennan and graduate forward Lök Wur (12 points off the bench).
Brennan's night included making his first career 3-pointer after only attempted one 3-pointer previously against Bethesda.
"I wasn't super excited when it left his hand, but it did look really smooth going through the net," Drew said.
Even with the offensive efficiency, the defensive carryover won the night. GCU eliminated hope when CBU missed its first eight shots of the second half, allowing the Lopes to lead 49-21 on a Brennan follow.
GCU built the lead to as much as 64-33 on graduate point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr.'s 3-pointer with 6:35 to go.
"I was really worried after a week off if we could stick with that rhythm," Drew said. "Guys came out and picked up where they left off last Saturday night."
GCU went beyond its defensive goals Saturday, especially with making CBU point guard Blondeau Tchoukuiegno taking more difficult shots than when he scored 23 points in the Lopes' 79-76 home win on Feb. 17. Tchoukuiegno went 2 for 14 from the field in the Riverside rematch.
Opponents are shooting 31.7% from the field over the past three Lopes wins.
"It really started with the intensity in practice," Brennan said. "Especially being at the end of this year, it's hard to have very intense practices, but Coach Drew told us, coming off those two losses (in Texas), our practices need to be very, very good. It's tiring sometimes, but the intensity in practice is what makes you able to beat a team by 21 points."
With a share of the WAC regular-season championship clinched while they were in their homes Thursday night, Saturday's win enabled the team to have a locker-room team celebration with a WAC trophy after Saturday's win and before heading home for a week of WAC Tournament preparation. It was the last of the nation's 32 regular-season championships to be settled.
"It's a confidence booster," McGlothan said. "The job's not done. That will keep us pushing to get better, but it gives us a healthy confidence that we have God on our side, and we can go into the tournament knowing what we're capable of."
GCU's 6 p.m. Friday semifinal opponent will be the winner of a Thursday quarterfinal between No. 4 seed Seattle U (18-13, 11-9 WAC) and the winner of a Wednesday first-round game between No. 5 seed Utah Valley (16-15, 11-9 WAC) and No. 8 seed California Baptist (15-16, 8-12 WAC). The Lopes' Friday game will be shown on ESPN+ with the 8:30 p.m. Saturday championship game broadcast on ESPN2.
The winner of GCU's side of the bracket would automatically earn the WAC's NCAA tournament automatic berth if No. 2 seed Tarleton State reaches the title game. The Texans are ineligible for the NCAA tournament because they are in the final year of the Division I four-year transition period.
GCU is not interested in sharing the WAC championship.
The Lopes won their first outright WAC regular-season championship Saturday night with an emphatic 68-47 rout at California Baptist to send GCU into the WAC Tournament off three consecutive wins by more than 20 points each.
With their defense holding CBU to 27.1% shooting, the Lopes (27-4, 17-3 WAC) matched the highest win total of their Division I era with 2015-16 and slapped an exclamation point on their second WAC regular-season title by finishing a game ahead of Tarleton State. Over a 17-minute stretch that bridged halftime, GCU outscored CBU 33-4
"It's a great feeling to be able to continue to make history and have the first outright championship," said Lopes graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan, who has been at GCU since 2019-20. "Last time (2021-22), it was OK that we did something, but we had to share it. It feels like a participation trophy at some points when you share it. This time, it feels like, 'This is ours.' It's nice to have that mark for GCU where next year everyone knows GCU was the champion last year."
The Lopes are taking a defensive riptide into next week's WAC Tournament, where they get two rounds of byes to start the postseason in a 6 p.m. Friday semifinal at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
GCU has held opponents to an average of 24.8 points per half over its past five halves of basketball. On Saturday night, the Lancers' 27.1% shooting was the worst that a home team has shot against the Lopes since CSU Bakersfield shot 24.5% in March 2017. It was the 14th-lowest clip by any home team in the nation this season.
GCU's 180-degree turn as a shot-blocking team from years past was a huge part of that. The Lopes entered Saturday with the nation's 13th-highest blocks average (5.3 per game) and pumped that up with 10 swats, one off their season high.Lopes sophomore center Duke Brennan recorded a career-high four blocks, all coming in the game's first seven minutes to set GCU's defensive tone in front of an overflow crowd of 5,363 fans, 60 of which were Brennan's friends and relatives.
"I loved their focus and determination coming out," said Lopes head coach Bryce Drew, whose team ranks seventh nationally in winning percentage (.871). "All the seedings were already set before tipoff. Everybody knew when they were going to play next week and who they were playing. And for them to come out with that energy and sustain it coming out of the locker room at halftime, it was just really fun to be on the sideline and watch it all."
California Baptist took a 17-16 lead with 10:40 remaining in the first half but did not score for 6 1/2 minutes and nearly went the rest of the half without a field goal. A tip-in with five seconds to go put GCU's halftime lead at 41-21 with senior guard Tyon Grant-Foster following up a 29-point game last Saturday with a 17-point first half this Saturday.
Grant-Foster was unguardable for a stretch again. A GCU 16-0 run started with a Brennan 3-point play and continued with nine consecutive points by Grant-Foster, whose tear began with two free throws for Lancers head coach Rick Croy's technical foul in a two-point game.Grant-Foster scored all on three levels with a 3-pointer, a drive and a mid-range during that stretch, and the Lopes kept overwhelming a Lancers team that lost leading scorer Dominique Daniels Jr. to a knee injury last month and lost recent top threat Scotty Washington to an arm injury 42 seconds into Saturday's game.
CBU missed 14 consecutive field goals, four of which did not get to the rim because of three blocks and an airball.
A defense holding an opponent to 25% shooting on its home court seemed difficult to replicate, but GCU kept CBU to 29% second-half shooting. And nearly half of the Lancers' second-half points came with their regulars going against Lopes reserves late in the game.
"They were motivated," Drew said of GCU's pursuit of its preseason goal for its first outright title. "This was totally on them. They wanted to play their last regular-season game the right way. They wanted to go out with a win and feel good about it."Grant-Foster finished with 19 points, giving him 19.4 points per game this season to secure the WAC scoring title. He followed up his 14-for-14 free throw shooting game against Stephen F. Austin by making 6 of 6 at CBU, just as the Lopes did not miss a free throw for the second consecutive game (22 for 22 vs. SFA, 9 for 9 vs. CBU).
Brennan posted the second-best scoring game of his career with 14 points, including nine of GCU's first 19 points when the Lancers switched on all screens and often left Brennan's rolls to double the ball-handlers.
The Lopes were not rattled by CBU's tactics and only made turnovers, one off their season low against North Dakota State.
"My teammates were really finding me in those quick slips," Brennan said. "They were switching those ball screens 1 through 5, so the 5 man was out on our guards and I'd slip, and the guards were able to find me."Everyone is a threat on our team. With them coming off ball screens or them spacing the floor, people will get confused. People will be like, 'Oh, should I go out and guard two on one on Tyon?' "
GCU junior guard Ray Harrison led the team with five assists and had 10 points to be one of four double-digit Lopes scorers with Grant-Foster, Brennan and graduate forward Lök Wur (12 points off the bench).
Brennan's night included making his first career 3-pointer after only attempted one 3-pointer previously against Bethesda.
"I wasn't super excited when it left his hand, but it did look really smooth going through the net," Drew said.
Even with the offensive efficiency, the defensive carryover won the night. GCU eliminated hope when CBU missed its first eight shots of the second half, allowing the Lopes to lead 49-21 on a Brennan follow.GCU built the lead to as much as 64-33 on graduate point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr.'s 3-pointer with 6:35 to go.
"I was really worried after a week off if we could stick with that rhythm," Drew said. "Guys came out and picked up where they left off last Saturday night."
GCU went beyond its defensive goals Saturday, especially with making CBU point guard Blondeau Tchoukuiegno taking more difficult shots than when he scored 23 points in the Lopes' 79-76 home win on Feb. 17. Tchoukuiegno went 2 for 14 from the field in the Riverside rematch.
Opponents are shooting 31.7% from the field over the past three Lopes wins.
"It really started with the intensity in practice," Brennan said. "Especially being at the end of this year, it's hard to have very intense practices, but Coach Drew told us, coming off those two losses (in Texas), our practices need to be very, very good. It's tiring sometimes, but the intensity in practice is what makes you able to beat a team by 21 points."
With a share of the WAC regular-season championship clinched while they were in their homes Thursday night, Saturday's win enabled the team to have a locker-room team celebration with a WAC trophy after Saturday's win and before heading home for a week of WAC Tournament preparation. It was the last of the nation's 32 regular-season championships to be settled.
"It's a confidence booster," McGlothan said. "The job's not done. That will keep us pushing to get better, but it gives us a healthy confidence that we have God on our side, and we can go into the tournament knowing what we're capable of."
GCU's 6 p.m. Friday semifinal opponent will be the winner of a Thursday quarterfinal between No. 4 seed Seattle U (18-13, 11-9 WAC) and the winner of a Wednesday first-round game between No. 5 seed Utah Valley (16-15, 11-9 WAC) and No. 8 seed California Baptist (15-16, 8-12 WAC). The Lopes' Friday game will be shown on ESPN+ with the 8:30 p.m. Saturday championship game broadcast on ESPN2.
The winner of GCU's side of the bracket would automatically earn the WAC's NCAA tournament automatic berth if No. 2 seed Tarleton State reaches the title game. The Texans are ineligible for the NCAA tournament because they are in the final year of the Division I four-year transition period.
Team Stats
GCU
CBU
FG%
.446
.271
3FG%
.391
.300
FT%
1.000
.600
RB
28
49
TO
5
16
STL
11
0
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
19
FGM
6
3FGM
1
FTM
6
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
3
Pts
10
FGM
4
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Basketball
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