Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball at Baylor on October 10, 2025 at 2 p.m. (MST)
M Basketball
2 p.m. (MST)
at Baylor
.png&width=100&type=webp)
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Saturday, February 1
Phoenix, Ariz.
6 p.m.
Grand Canyon
vs
Utah Valley
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
GCU tangles again with 1st-place Utah Valley
1/31/2025 6:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
Lopes could tie Wolverines for 1st with win at WAC midpoint
Saturday, Feb. 1 | 6 p.m. | Global Credit Union Arena | Phoenix, Ariz. |
||||
 |
UTAH VALLEY
WOLVERINES (15-6, 7-0 WAC) |
at | GRAND CANYON LOPES (16-5, 6-1 WAC) |
 |
| WATCH: ESPN+ | LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic | STATS: View | ||||
Grand Canyon is done with regrets for its only conference loss.
The Lopes are about making amends now.
It took five consecutive convincing conference wins since a Jan. 9 loss at Utah Valley for GCU to get an opportunity of atonement at 6 p.m. Saturday in Global Credit Union Arena.
The Lopes (16-5, 6-1 WAC) welcome a home-court rematch with the Wolverines (15-5, 7-0 WAC) and an opportunity to tie them for first place at the conference season's midpoint.
Utah Valley is riding a 10-game winning streak and is the only team to beat GCU in the Lopes' last 11 games, winning 72-64 in Orem, Utah, by grabbing 17 offensive rebounds and blocking 10 GCU shots with its tall lineup.
While the Lopes were defeating Seattle U 83-74 at home Thursday night, the Wolverines have been off since winning 70-66 at Seattle U last Saturday. Half of Utah Valley's 10-game winning streak has been decided by five points or fewer."It's time," said Lopes senior power forward Coles, who scored eight points in that loss and has averaged 16.2 points since then. "They came out and played a little bit more aggressive than we did. We had chances to win, but obviously we didn't play the way we needed to.
"We're a much different team now. We look a lot better. We play a lot harder on defense. We're more aggressive. Guys are starting to get into the flow. We're going to be a different team, and they're going to see that. We're coming for that win, for sure."
Lopes senior guard Collin Moore said that loss at Utah Valley acted as a wake-up call, but GCU did display defense against Utah Valley like it has played since mid-December. The Wolverines won despite shooting 36.5% from the field, their second-lowest clip of the season.
"We're more locked in, more focused," Moore said. "We're back to where we need to be. You still have to go through us. We're still the league champions."Over GCU's 10-1 stretch, the Lopes are allowing 37.6% shooting from the field and 27.2% shooting from 3-point range.
Things that Utah Valley does well went even better when it beat GCU. The Wolverines rank fourth nationally with 6.0 blocked shots per game. They blocked 10 shots. Utah Valley outrebounds opponents by 5.9 boards per game. It outrebounded GCU by eight.
Wolverines sophomore point guard Trevan Leonhardt, who played 13 minutes per game last season, ranks 12th in the nation with 3.3 assists for every turnover. He had eight assists and one turnover against GCU.
Utah Valley 6-foot-5 junior guard Dominick Nelson, a junior college transfer from Miami, averages 15 points per game but scored 21 on the Lopes.
"It's always a battle when we play them, and we expect a tough environment on Saturday," Utah Valley head coach Todd Phillips said. "But we're playing good right now, and the strength of our team is that multiple guys step up and have big games to help carry us through. We've been finding ways to win, but we're going to have to be at our best to keep this thing going."The week following GCU's loss at Utah Valley became a rallying cry for "The Program," messaging from the Lopes coaching staff that resonated into results. The defensive dominance, except for Thursday's first half, continued for the next four games and resurfaced to hold Seattle to 32% second-half shooting Thursday night.
GCU has averaged 16.4 assists over the past five wins for 51% shooting from the field. Previously, the Lopes had averaged 13.8 per game despite having 31 assists against Norfolk State in November.
"The guys have come together," Drew said. "We can't make the mistakes that we made (Thursday night). That's something we're consistently working on every day, but we're very pleased with the results lately. We just want to keep striving and cut some of those mistakes down."
Lope tracks
- Graduate swingman Tyon Grant-Foster reached 1,000 career points one week after senior power forward JaKobe Coles also did. Senior guard Ray Harrison has 2,231 career points, the eighth most among active Division I players.
- Harrison needs 15 points to pass Jovan Blacksher Jr. for seventh on the GCU all-time scoring leaderboard. He has scored 1,340 points in 2 1/2 Lopes seasons.
- GCU junior center Duke Brennan is averaging 12.8 points and 10.5 rebounds per game over the past eight games. His season average of 9.1 rebounds per game ranks 28th nationally.
- Grant-Foster averaged 17.7 points per game and shot 55% from the field in January. He averaged 10.5 points on 28% shooting in November and December.
- The Lopes have won 28 of their past 29 home games.
- GCU ranks second nationally for free throws points per game (20.1) and 12th for steals per game (9.8).
- GCU (No. 91) and Utah Valley (No. 123) are the WAC's highest-ranked teams in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings.
- The Lopes lead the all-time series with the Wolverines 25-10 with the teams splitting the last 10 meetings.
- Nelson earned the most recent WAC Player of the Week for averaging 20.5 points and 7.5 rebounds with 57% shooting in wins at California Baptist and Seattle U.
- With a win, Utah Valley would have its best-ever conference start at 8-0 in WAC play.
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballMakaih Williams | Media Availability | 9.3.25
Thursday, September 04
Dusty Stromer | Media Availability | 9.3.25
Thursday, September 04
Kaleb Smith | Media Availability | 9.3.25
Thursday, September 04
Non-Conference Schedule Release | Men's Basketball
Monday, August 04