Cowboys can't hold Lopes from 1st MW win

Saturday, December 20

Arena-Auditorium • Laramie, Wyo.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

7-4,1-0Mountain West

Wyoming

9-3,0-1Mountain West

Grand Canyon

Wyoming

Photo by: David Kadlubowski

12/20/2025 5:49:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

GCU makes conference debut on road with 45-26 1st half

By: Paul Coro

LARAMIE, Wyo. – Grand Canyon's Mountain West debut does not foretell their conference story, but it was a tantalizing book cover to the chapters ahead.

The Lopes made quite the conference first impression Saturday at Wyoming, using a 16-0 run to take an 18-3 lead that set the plot for an 82-70 win. GCU's historic program victory also handed Wyoming its first loss in nine home games this season.

GCU (7-4, 1-0 MW) shot a season-best 56.8% from the field at Arena-Auditorium and held its opponent to 37.3% shooting for the second consecutive game. A late Cowboys surge trimmed what had been a 22-point Lopes lead with 11:34 to go, but Wyoming still finished 18 points below its season scoring average.

Laramie, WY. Dec. 20, 2025: The Lopes defeat Wyoming 82-70 for their first Mountain West Conference win. David Kadlubowski/GCU

Laramie, WY. Dec. 20, 2025: The Lopes defeat Wyoming 82-70 for their first Mountain West Conference win. David Kadlubowski/GCU

"They really came out with a lot of confidence but also determination," said Lopes head coach Bryce Drew, who is 6-0 in conference openers at GCU. "It wasn't just periodic determination. It was 40 minutes of physicality and embracing physicality and playing with a lot of energy."

Wyoming (9-3, 0-1 MW) opened the game with Kiani Saxon's first 3-pointer of the season but then missed its next 13 first-half attempts from beyond the arc.

GCU's 16-0 run followed the Saxon 3, with the Lopes defense disrupting the Cowboys for five turnovers (four by steals) on 10 consecutive stops.

Graduate power forward Nana Owusu-Anane made a pair of consecutive 3-pointers to put gas on the Lopes' fire. Graduate guard Brian Moore Jr. set a tone with a jumper and his early defense against Wyoming leading scorer Leland Walker, but two fouls in the first three minutes brought in junior guard Makaih Williams to cause the Cowboys more problems.

Williams, a one-time Wyoming signee when GCU assistant coach Marc Rodgers coached there, scored in transition twice off turnovers on his way to matching his season scoring high of 20. It followed up another standout Williams bench performance last Saturday, when GCU similarly jumped on Coastal Carolina in the first half.

By the time senior guard Jaden Henley sank a deep 3-pointer midway through the first half, the Lopes were leading 27-8 against a Wyoming team with a season scoring margin of plus-16.2 points per game.

"Those first 10 minutes, that's as good as you could pray for, especially in a road game," Drew said.

Laramie, WY. Dec. 20, 2025: The Lopes defeat Wyoming 82-70 for their first Mountain West Conference win. David Kadlubowski/GCU

Drew thought GCU's first half was even better than last weekend, when it led Coastal Carolina 52-25 at halftime, and that Williams also topped that 16-point game off the bench.

When this first half ended in front of a crowd of 3,853 fans, GCU led Wyoming 45-26 for its largest halftime road lead since March 2024 at California Baptist (41-21).

"Their length bothered us," Wyoming head coach Sundance Wicks said. "They forced some early turnovers. They closed the gaps pretty quick."

Wicks summarized, "We just got our ever-loving butts whooped."

Bouncing back from a 1-for-11 shooting game a week ago, Henley scored 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting and broke his 3-point slump (1 for 14 in the past three games) with 2-for-3 accuracy at Wyoming.

Owusu-Anane added 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals to be the Lopes' top plus-minus performer (plus-16).

"He's playing much more confident and much more at ease in these last 10 days and the last two games than what he started the season," Drew said of Owusu-Anane. "It could just be that he's getting back in rhythm of playing games, which he hadn't played for well over 12 months (after an injury redshirt last season)."

It was a historic moment for GCU to make its Mountain West debut in its 13th Division I season, only eight of which were postseason-eligible season previously.

Laramie, WY. Dec. 20, 2025: The Lopes defeat Wyoming 82-70 for their first Mountain West Conference win. David Kadlubowski/GCU

The 1-0 conference mark will stick until Jan. 3, when the Lopes' Mountain West schedule resumes at home against Colorado State.

Wyoming had won 87-72 in its previous game Monday at South Dakota State and had impressed with an earlier four-point loss at Texas Tech, which upset No. 3 Duke on Saturday. The Cowboys entered Saturday with a No. 55 NET ranking, but it could not catch a scoring rhythm against GCU until a rash of Lopes fouls helped whittle away at a 22-point lead.

GCU staved off any potential Wyoming run, particularly in the closing stretch with a key blocked shot by freshman center Efe Demirel and Henley scoring six of the Lopes' last 13 points.

"It's a really good team," Wicks said. "They're big. They're physical. They provide matchup problems at every corner,"

GCU contested 3-pointers well, contributing to Wyoming going 3 for 26 on 3s after entering Saturday at 37% on 3s this season. The Cowboys' 37.3% overall shooting was their season low.

"You've got to give the players the credit," Drew said. "They were extremely focused this week in practice and very focused at our shootaround this morning. In our locker room, they were locked in. We talked about it – the significance of starting conference."

GCU returned to Phoenix on Saturday night to have a day of preparation Sunday for its next game, a 6 p.m. Monday home nonconference finale against IU Indy.