Completed Event: Men's Basketball at UNLV on February 7, 2026 , Loss , 78, to, 80
M Basketball
at UNLV
L 78-80
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
Intensity continues with next stop at UT Arlington
2/14/2025 4:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
ARLINGTON, Texas – If a Grand Canyon team had been rolling into UT Arlington on Saturday, the inherent motive would have been for two-fifths of the Lopes' starting lineup – a homecoming for Denton, Texas, native JaKobe Coles and former UT Arlington guard Makaih Williams.
Instead, what matters most for GCU is the game ahead of them and the team ahead of them.
Trailing WAC leader Utah Valley by a game with seven regular-season games remaining, the Lopes have to take care of their business first in order to have hopes of repeating a conference regular-season title.
GCU (18-6, 8-2 WAC) survived a Tarleton State comeback in Stephenville on Thursday but have made 22 turnovers in consecutive games after never doing so one regulation game since January 2017. The Lopes go from the oven to the pressure cooker for a Saturday game at 1 p.m. (Phoenix time) at UT Arlington, a team that plays with fervor for an 8-2 home record.
"It'll be a high-intensity game," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "They play a lot of four-guard lineups and shoot a ton of 3s. They have a Villanova transfer (Lance Ware) who's really talented at the center position.
"Again, we get everybody's best shot. This is what makes us better for, hopefully, the end of the year. We've got to be ready. We're going to have to play as tough as we did (at Tarleton State) or tougher, but we're going to have to take care of the ball and shoot the ball better from 3."
The Mavericks (12-13, 5-6 WAC) do not dazzle with their overall records, but they are 5-2 in conference after an 0-4 start and are battle-tested. They have played seven one-possession WAC games, winning four of them after rallying from a 17-point hole to beat California Baptist 82-79 on Thursday.
It was UT Arlington's third overtime game (2-1) in WAC play.
"It's big," said Eastern Arizona College transfer Raysean Seamster, who obliterated his career high (19) and season average (10.3) with 29 points against California Baptist. "We've got to go out and get another big one on Saturday.
"We need these two games. They're big, so we're going to go out there and fight on Saturday."
UT Arlington second-year head coach KT Turner returns one bench player from the team that lost to GCU in last year's WAC Tournament championship game. Williams started for the Mavericks and transferred to the Lopes, just as Coles transferred to GCU from across the Metroplex at TCU.
The restructured team added Ware, a 6-foot-10 graduate power forward who played three seasons at Kentucky before spending last season at Villanova. His reunion with Turner, a former Kentucky assistant in 2022-23, has resulted in him becoming the WAC's field goal percentage leader (58.0%) with 14.4 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game.
The Mavericks are the WAC leaders in 3-point percentage (37.0%, No. 49 nationally), but have been missing Central Oklahoma transfer Jaden Wells' league-leading 37.3% 3-point shooting since Feb. 1 due to injury. UT Arlington also allows a conference-worst 36.4% 3-point shooting.
GCU is only shooting 23.9% on 3s over the past five games and lost its top 3-point shooter, sophomore guard Caleb Shaw (38.6%) indefinitely to an injury he suffered at California Baptist.
Without him, GCU subbed less Thursday and faced foul trouble with senior guard Ray Harrison, who was a team-best plus-13 in 29 minutes. He dealt five assists, but had four of GCU's turnovers and did not score for the first time since he played seven minutes as a Presbyterian freshman in January 2021.
Grant-Foster tied his career high with seven turnovers Thursday, when Williams committed six, which he only exceeded as a UT Arlington player against GCU last season. Despite playing in the 11th game of a 16-game conference schedule, this is the first GCU-UT Arlington meeting of the season.
Twelve days later, the Mavericks will come to Global Credit Union Arena.
"We know it's never about how you start," Grant-Foster said. "It's always about how you finish.
"I told the guys, 'We're not playing just to win a WAC championship. We're playing to go to the Sweet 16.' So we've got to play like that every single game, every possession. With us keeping that mentality, we're going to keep going and just keep getting better, just because of the amount of accountability that we all have for each other."
Instead, what matters most for GCU is the game ahead of them and the team ahead of them.
Trailing WAC leader Utah Valley by a game with seven regular-season games remaining, the Lopes have to take care of their business first in order to have hopes of repeating a conference regular-season title.
GCU (18-6, 8-2 WAC) survived a Tarleton State comeback in Stephenville on Thursday but have made 22 turnovers in consecutive games after never doing so one regulation game since January 2017. The Lopes go from the oven to the pressure cooker for a Saturday game at 1 p.m. (Phoenix time) at UT Arlington, a team that plays with fervor for an 8-2 home record.
"It'll be a high-intensity game," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "They play a lot of four-guard lineups and shoot a ton of 3s. They have a Villanova transfer (Lance Ware) who's really talented at the center position."Again, we get everybody's best shot. This is what makes us better for, hopefully, the end of the year. We've got to be ready. We're going to have to play as tough as we did (at Tarleton State) or tougher, but we're going to have to take care of the ball and shoot the ball better from 3."
The Mavericks (12-13, 5-6 WAC) do not dazzle with their overall records, but they are 5-2 in conference after an 0-4 start and are battle-tested. They have played seven one-possession WAC games, winning four of them after rallying from a 17-point hole to beat California Baptist 82-79 on Thursday.
It was UT Arlington's third overtime game (2-1) in WAC play.
"It's big," said Eastern Arizona College transfer Raysean Seamster, who obliterated his career high (19) and season average (10.3) with 29 points against California Baptist. "We've got to go out and get another big one on Saturday.
"We need these two games. They're big, so we're going to go out there and fight on Saturday."
UT Arlington second-year head coach KT Turner returns one bench player from the team that lost to GCU in last year's WAC Tournament championship game. Williams started for the Mavericks and transferred to the Lopes, just as Coles transferred to GCU from across the Metroplex at TCU.
The restructured team added Ware, a 6-foot-10 graduate power forward who played three seasons at Kentucky before spending last season at Villanova. His reunion with Turner, a former Kentucky assistant in 2022-23, has resulted in him becoming the WAC's field goal percentage leader (58.0%) with 14.4 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game.
The Mavericks are the WAC leaders in 3-point percentage (37.0%, No. 49 nationally), but have been missing Central Oklahoma transfer Jaden Wells' league-leading 37.3% 3-point shooting since Feb. 1 due to injury. UT Arlington also allows a conference-worst 36.4% 3-point shooting.
GCU is only shooting 23.9% on 3s over the past five games and lost its top 3-point shooter, sophomore guard Caleb Shaw (38.6%) indefinitely to an injury he suffered at California Baptist.
Without him, GCU subbed less Thursday and faced foul trouble with senior guard Ray Harrison, who was a team-best plus-13 in 29 minutes. He dealt five assists, but had four of GCU's turnovers and did not score for the first time since he played seven minutes as a Presbyterian freshman in January 2021.
Grant-Foster tied his career high with seven turnovers Thursday, when Williams committed six, which he only exceeded as a UT Arlington player against GCU last season. Despite playing in the 11th game of a 16-game conference schedule, this is the first GCU-UT Arlington meeting of the season.Twelve days later, the Mavericks will come to Global Credit Union Arena.
"We know it's never about how you start," Grant-Foster said. "It's always about how you finish.
"I told the guys, 'We're not playing just to win a WAC championship. We're playing to go to the Sweet 16.' So we've got to play like that every single game, every possession. With us keeping that mentality, we're going to keep going and just keep getting better, just because of the amount of accountability that we all have for each other."
Lope tracks
- Drew on Shaw's injury: "He's rehabbing. Hopefully, we'll have him back soon, but it's still determined when."
- Drew on reinstating Grant-Foster as a starter Thursday for the first time since Jan. 9: "Tyon's really well and had a really good week of practice. Hopefully, he can continue his strong play and take it to another level."
- Since the new year, Grant-Foster is averaging 17.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.8 blocked shots and 1.8 steals per game with 52.5% shooting from the field and 35.7% shooting on 3-pointers.
- GCU ranks 14th in the nation for fastest tempo, according to kenpom.com.
- UT Arlington committed 10 turnovers in an overtime win Thursday against California Baptist. GCU committed 22 turnovers in a regulation loss last Saturday at CBU.
- GCU leads UT Arlington 6-1 in the all-time series with the last meeting being the Lopes' 89-74 victory in the WAC Tournament championship game.
- Since Wells has been out, UT Arlington sophomore Kade Douglas has started three consecutive games and averaged 15.0 points with 10-for-16 accuracy on 3-pointers.
Players Mentioned
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