Rapid recap: GCU 88, Northern Illinois 59

Grand Canyon reversed its defensive issues to rout Northern Illinois 88-59 on Monday night with the visiting Huskies shooting 34.7% from the field and committing 21 turnovers at Global Credit Union Arena.

Coming off a loss in which GCU allowed 90 points, the Lopes (2-1) locked down Northern Illinois to open a double-digit lead in the first half before blowing open the game to with the second-half lead growing to as much as 35 points.

Key player

GCU graduate power forward Wilhelm Breidenbach set a career scoring high with a game-high 16 points in just 11 minutes off the bench. The Lopes outscored the Huskies by 27 points in Breidenbach's 11 minutes on the floor.

The 6-foot-10 Washington transfer made 6 of 7 shots from the field, including 1 of 2 from 3-point range. He also hit all three of his free throws on GCU's 19-for-20 free throw shooting night and added four rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.

Key moment

GCU held Northern Illinois without a field for an 8-minute, 50-second stretch of the first half, opening the lead to 36-19 during that time.

The Huskies committed 14 first-half turnovers with graduate power forward Nana Owusu-Anane (10 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists) and freshman point guard Evan Boisdur (season debut) each getting two steals.

Key statistic

GCU made 10 of 26 shots from 3-point range, giving the Lopes two games of double-digit made 3s in their first three games of the season. Last season's team did not do that until mid-February.

Sophomore guard Makaih Williams, who started in place of injured guard Brian Moore Jr., made a team-high three 3-pointers on six tries and Owusu-Anane, junior guard Dustry Stromer and junior guard Caleb Shaw each sank a pair of 3s.

Quotable

GCU head coach Bryce Drew on the defense: "Every possession, the guys were locked into where their stance was supposed to be, where their angles were. We still need to get better obviously on a lot of things, but the intent and the focus was much, much better tonight on that end."

What's next?

The Lopes hit the road for their first road game of the season Saturday at Saint Louis, which is off to a 3-0 start with three blowout wins.That game will tip at 6 p.m. (Phoenix time) and can be watched on ESPN+ or heard on the GCU Lopes app and GCULopes.com.

Go here for Paul Coro's full game story with quotes from head coach Bryce Drew and Lopes players.

Grand Canyon University Athletics

Key player

Key moment

Key statistic

Quotable

What's next?

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Players Mentioned

Evan Boisdur

Wilhelm Breidenbach

Brian Moore Jr.

Nana Owusu-Anane

Caleb Shaw

Makaih Williams

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