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
Thursday, January 9
Orem, Utah / UCCU Center
6 p.m.
Grand Canyon
11-5,1-1WAC
64
at
72
Utah Valley
10-6,2-0WAC
1
2
F
Grand Canyon
25
39
64
Utah Valley
35
37
72
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
UVU stays out of reach for visiting GCU
1/9/2025 11:05:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
Wolverines thrive off offensive boards, points off turnovers
OREM, Utah – Championships are hard to win. Repeating a championship is even harder.
It took one road trip in the WAC for Grand Canyon to be reminded of that. The defending champion Lopes trailed for the final 33 minutes of a 72-64 loss at Utah Valley, which remained undefeated at its UCCU Center in front of 2,361 fans on Thursday night.
In a made-for-metrics matchup of the WAC's top two teams, the Wolverines (10-6, 2-0 WAC) won their fifth consecutive game while ending a five-game winning streak for the Lopes (11-5, 1-1 WAC).
In matching last season's loss total, the scoreboard was kinder to GCU than the telling statistics:
The latter drought occurred just as the Lopes had dwindled a 13-point, second-half Wolverines lead to one point (51-50) with 9:18 remaining. GCU undid that effort with a stretch of four missed field goals (two of which were blocked), three missed free throws and three turnovers.
The Lopes held the Wolverines, the WAC's field goal percentage leader, to 36.5% shooting. But Utah Valley earned eight more field goal attempts and nine more free throw attempts.
"They were much tougher than us," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "They were much hungrier than us. They wanted to win more than us.
"Everyone wants to beat us. And when you come in with the mentality that you're just going to be that much better and more dominant than the team you're playing, the hungrier team and the team that wants to beat you more is going to win. It shows in the stat sheet."
The first half looked unfamiliar with the Lopes, who ranked fourth nationally with 20 free throw points per game, going about 26 minutes without a free throw. GCU junior center Duke Brennan was fouled on a rolling finish to the basket on the game's opening play, and the Lopes did not return to the free throw line until there was 13:43 remaining in the game.
The Lopes' nine first-half turnovers created the first-half difference, especially when a 12-11 GCU lead slipped away with five turnovers on the next seven possessions.
Despite locking down defensively for the final six minutes of the first half, the Lopes missed their last four shots to remain behind 35-25 at halftime.
"Bad shots at the rim, silly turnovers, dribbling too much, bad decisions, eyes not up – stuff we practice every day and we try to get better at," Drew said. "It boils down that this group has some naturally instinctive, aggressive players, but you can't only play aggressive when you're down by 10. You can't only play aggressive when you feel that you have to score or you have to get a stop.
"You try to give seniors the upper hand. You try to give them the absolute chances to win back the conference title they won last year. But at some point, something's got to shift. Something's got to change because the aggressiveness and the toughness is not acceptable for GCU basketball."
The Lopes responded to the halftime message, particularly defensively. Grant-Foster followed up Saturday's breakthrough 23-point game with 22 points, 18 of which came in the second half.
GCU scored on five consecutive possessions to tighten the Utah Valley lead to 51-50 on Grant-Foster's five consecutive points, a stretch that started with a steal and breakaway finish.
"They made that run, and we couldn't get anything going," Wolverines head coach Todd Phillips said. "It felt like we were just marching them to the foul line, but we talked about staying in the game and staying in the moment. It was like Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. We were dodging punches. Then we got a second wind, made a couple of plays and got out in transition to give us some breathing room."
The Lopes entered the game with the nation's 11th-fastest pace. But at home, the Wolverines looked more comfortable running. And although Utah Valley shot poorly, it did not need to make a perimeter shot in the game's last 10 minutes to win.
The Wolverines' second- and third-chance opportunities thwarted GCU's defensive efforts. When GCU made a last-ditch threat trailing 62-55, Grant-Foster blocked a shot but Utah Valley reserve freshman guard Jackson Holcombe split two Lopes for a putback score.
"We've had four years of hard practicing, good execution, will to win, hunger, outrebounding teams," Drew said. "Right now, it's just not consistent when we do it. We're really, really good. But the problem, as a coach, is when you put Band-aids on it and you try to fix it, it's got to be a habit at some point. It's got to be who they are as players and as a team.
"We're gonna keep searching. We're gonna keep fighting. We're gonna find some players, some lineups, some other mechanisms that we can do the next month and a half to try to get this team to be tougher and to play like a GCU team that we've built for four years here."
Utah Valley boasts the WAC's top shot blocker in 6-foot-10 sophomore Carter Welling, a UC Irvine transfer. He swatted three shots Thursday night, but the Wolverines blocked 10 as a team. Utah Valley is the only GCU opponent to tally 10 blocks in the past three seasons, and it has done so twice.
In addition to scoring well again, Grant-Foster added a team-high eight rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots. Senior guard Ray Harrison was one of six Lopes who scored and the only other double-digit scorer with 11 points, moving him into 10th place on the all-time GCU scoring leader list.
While the Lopes return four starters, the Wolverines have a starting lineup with one returning starter that features junior college transfer Dominick Nelson (21 points, eight rebounds) and sophomore Tanner Toolson (17 points, seven rebounds) on the wings. Nelson, Toolson and point guard Trevon Leonhardt (eight assists, one turnovers) accumulated 23 rebounds.
"Fight," Toolson said of how Utah Valley won. "We wanted it more tonight."
WAC home teams are 6-1 in conference play thus far, as GCU returns to Global Credit Union Arena for a Thursday night game against Abilene Christian and a Saturday night game against Tarleton State, which is also off to a 2-0 conference start.
"We're not as good as a team as we were last year at this point," Drew said. "And we have to be able to look in the mirror and get better."
It took one road trip in the WAC for Grand Canyon to be reminded of that. The defending champion Lopes trailed for the final 33 minutes of a 72-64 loss at Utah Valley, which remained undefeated at its UCCU Center in front of 2,361 fans on Thursday night.
In a made-for-metrics matchup of the WAC's top two teams, the Wolverines (10-6, 2-0 WAC) won their fifth consecutive game while ending a five-game winning streak for the Lopes (11-5, 1-1 WAC).
In matching last season's loss total, the scoreboard was kinder to GCU than the telling statistics:
- The Lopes were outscored 14-0 in points off turnovers in the first half.
- GCU allowed 17 offensive rebounds, an opponent season high.
- Nearly one-third of the Lopes' misses (10 of 31) were blocked.
The latter drought occurred just as the Lopes had dwindled a 13-point, second-half Wolverines lead to one point (51-50) with 9:18 remaining. GCU undid that effort with a stretch of four missed field goals (two of which were blocked), three missed free throws and three turnovers.The Lopes held the Wolverines, the WAC's field goal percentage leader, to 36.5% shooting. But Utah Valley earned eight more field goal attempts and nine more free throw attempts.
"They were much tougher than us," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "They were much hungrier than us. They wanted to win more than us.
"Everyone wants to beat us. And when you come in with the mentality that you're just going to be that much better and more dominant than the team you're playing, the hungrier team and the team that wants to beat you more is going to win. It shows in the stat sheet."
The first half looked unfamiliar with the Lopes, who ranked fourth nationally with 20 free throw points per game, going about 26 minutes without a free throw. GCU junior center Duke Brennan was fouled on a rolling finish to the basket on the game's opening play, and the Lopes did not return to the free throw line until there was 13:43 remaining in the game.The Lopes' nine first-half turnovers created the first-half difference, especially when a 12-11 GCU lead slipped away with five turnovers on the next seven possessions.
Despite locking down defensively for the final six minutes of the first half, the Lopes missed their last four shots to remain behind 35-25 at halftime.
"Bad shots at the rim, silly turnovers, dribbling too much, bad decisions, eyes not up – stuff we practice every day and we try to get better at," Drew said. "It boils down that this group has some naturally instinctive, aggressive players, but you can't only play aggressive when you're down by 10. You can't only play aggressive when you feel that you have to score or you have to get a stop.
"You try to give seniors the upper hand. You try to give them the absolute chances to win back the conference title they won last year. But at some point, something's got to shift. Something's got to change because the aggressiveness and the toughness is not acceptable for GCU basketball."
The Lopes responded to the halftime message, particularly defensively. Grant-Foster followed up Saturday's breakthrough 23-point game with 22 points, 18 of which came in the second half.GCU scored on five consecutive possessions to tighten the Utah Valley lead to 51-50 on Grant-Foster's five consecutive points, a stretch that started with a steal and breakaway finish.
"They made that run, and we couldn't get anything going," Wolverines head coach Todd Phillips said. "It felt like we were just marching them to the foul line, but we talked about staying in the game and staying in the moment. It was like Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. We were dodging punches. Then we got a second wind, made a couple of plays and got out in transition to give us some breathing room."
The Lopes entered the game with the nation's 11th-fastest pace. But at home, the Wolverines looked more comfortable running. And although Utah Valley shot poorly, it did not need to make a perimeter shot in the game's last 10 minutes to win.The Wolverines' second- and third-chance opportunities thwarted GCU's defensive efforts. When GCU made a last-ditch threat trailing 62-55, Grant-Foster blocked a shot but Utah Valley reserve freshman guard Jackson Holcombe split two Lopes for a putback score.
"We've had four years of hard practicing, good execution, will to win, hunger, outrebounding teams," Drew said. "Right now, it's just not consistent when we do it. We're really, really good. But the problem, as a coach, is when you put Band-aids on it and you try to fix it, it's got to be a habit at some point. It's got to be who they are as players and as a team.
"We're gonna keep searching. We're gonna keep fighting. We're gonna find some players, some lineups, some other mechanisms that we can do the next month and a half to try to get this team to be tougher and to play like a GCU team that we've built for four years here."
Utah Valley boasts the WAC's top shot blocker in 6-foot-10 sophomore Carter Welling, a UC Irvine transfer. He swatted three shots Thursday night, but the Wolverines blocked 10 as a team. Utah Valley is the only GCU opponent to tally 10 blocks in the past three seasons, and it has done so twice.In addition to scoring well again, Grant-Foster added a team-high eight rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots. Senior guard Ray Harrison was one of six Lopes who scored and the only other double-digit scorer with 11 points, moving him into 10th place on the all-time GCU scoring leader list.
While the Lopes return four starters, the Wolverines have a starting lineup with one returning starter that features junior college transfer Dominick Nelson (21 points, eight rebounds) and sophomore Tanner Toolson (17 points, seven rebounds) on the wings. Nelson, Toolson and point guard Trevon Leonhardt (eight assists, one turnovers) accumulated 23 rebounds.
"Fight," Toolson said of how Utah Valley won. "We wanted it more tonight."
WAC home teams are 6-1 in conference play thus far, as GCU returns to Global Credit Union Arena for a Thursday night game against Abilene Christian and a Saturday night game against Tarleton State, which is also off to a 2-0 conference start.
"We're not as good as a team as we were last year at this point," Drew said. "And we have to be able to look in the mirror and get better."
Team Stats
GCU
UVU
FG%
.436
.365
3FG%
.294
.316
FT%
.611
.741
RB
37
45
TO
14
12
STL
10
6
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
22
FGM
8
3FGM
1
FTM
5
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
2
FTM
1
Pts
9
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
4
Pts
8
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
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