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
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
Defense, star trio deliver WAC semifinal win
3/15/2025 1:05:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
Lopes blank Lancers for 8 minutes, advance to title game vs. Utah Valley
LAS VEGAS – Grand Canyon always knew what it would take to get to a WAC Tournament championship game again.
Most of the Lopes' principle players had dug in defensively, hit clutch shots and concocted the team chemistry to send them to the title bout last year.
This season's team was not as healthy and lost a tad more, but GCU still knows how to handle a WAC Tournament. The Lopes secured a Saturday night championship game spot against top seed Utah Valley by following up a quarterfinal rout strongly in Friday night's semifinal at Orleans Arena.
The two-time defending WAC Tournament champions shut out California Baptist for eight minutes, and GCU led by as many as 17 points in a 75-66 victory at a purple-packed Orleans Arena. The Lopes will play the Wolverines at 8:40 p.m. on ESPN with a chance at their fourth NCAA tournament trip in five years.
"We're champions," said Lopes senior guard Ray Harrison, who is 8-0 in WAC Tournament games. "So I feel like our mentality has just been molded into that type of mentality. We just expect to win. Everybody's energy is where it needs to be. It definitely does play a factor whenever it's win or go home."
For the 15th time this season, GCU (25-7) held an opponent to 40% shooting or less.
That paired well with Lopes senior power forward JaKobe Coles using his first WAC Tournament as a venue for the best basketball performance of his career. After a 24-point quarterfinal, Coles scored 22 in the semifinal for the first consecutive 20-point games of his career.
Coles, Harrison and re-emerging graduate swingman Tyon Grant-Foster took turns producing key, steely points Friday night. The trio scored GCU's final 20 points, which were needed when California Baptist scorched a late 4-for-5 stretch of 3-point shooting.
"They're all excellent basketball players," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "What I enjoyed is how well they've really played together these last two games. Each guy's had spurts that's carried us throughout the game. That's a great compliment to them being really good players and also being really good teammates."
The physical play of California Baptist jammed lanes and kept GCU on the perimeter early. The game slogged to a Lancers 14-12 lead through 13 minutes with the Lopes already committing seven turnovers.
California Baptist missed its next nine shots, sprinkling four turnovers amid that eight-minute scoreless stretch. GCU pounced with 13 unanswered points that included graduate power forward Lok Wur driving for a baseline slam and nailing a 3-pointer.
Wur and sophomore guards Caleb Shaw and Makaih Williams outscored California Baptist's bench 13-3 and outrebounded it 9-1.
"When you get to the tournament and play this many games in a short amount of time, you've got to have a lot of different bodies that can go in and help you," Drew said. "Our eight-man rotation was really good, and everybody helped us."
After not shooting a first-half free throw, GCU went 19 for 23 at the free throw line in the second half. That helped grow the lead to 15 when a possession with four offensive rebounds led to a Williams driving score for a 55-38 lead with 7:25 to go.
That made for 38 Lancers points in 32 1/2 minutes at that stage.
"Grand Canyon is a really strong defensive program," California Baptist head coach Rick Croy said. "We needed to, early in the game, knock them back with some shotmaking, with some precision offensively. And they stifled us early. We had a real hard time. We had a stretch there where we just couldn't score for a while. And when you get behind against those guys, they have enough talent to make it hard the rest of the way."
Grant-Foster's impact is right on time after he was out injured for nearly four weeks, and participated in five-on-five work twice before starting Wednesday's quarterfinal.
"Tyon was really big," Drew said. "He got off to a slow start, and he came through and had just a monster second half for us."
Grant-Foster made 6 of 8 shots in the second half, when he scored 15 of his 18 points by driving into the paint and finishing with a variety of spin moves, post-ups and high-rising scores.
"The last five minutes is when I got comfortable," Grant-Foster said. "I haven't played in 3 1/2, four weeks. I go out there and try to do things when my body isn't in the best shape that it was before I went down. That's when I caught my wind. Coach and my teammates trusted me to make plays down the stretch."
GCU and Utah Valley, the tournament's top two seeds, have not met since Feb. 1 when the Lopes salvaged a series split. GCU won 75-57 at home after Utah Valley took a 72-64 home win on Jan. 9.
Saturday night's WAC Tournament championship game will be broadcast on ESPN2 with play-by-play announcer Dave Feldman and color commentator Jarod Haase.
Most of the Lopes' principle players had dug in defensively, hit clutch shots and concocted the team chemistry to send them to the title bout last year.
This season's team was not as healthy and lost a tad more, but GCU still knows how to handle a WAC Tournament. The Lopes secured a Saturday night championship game spot against top seed Utah Valley by following up a quarterfinal rout strongly in Friday night's semifinal at Orleans Arena.
The two-time defending WAC Tournament champions shut out California Baptist for eight minutes, and GCU led by as many as 17 points in a 75-66 victory at a purple-packed Orleans Arena. The Lopes will play the Wolverines at 8:40 p.m. on ESPN with a chance at their fourth NCAA tournament trip in five years.
"We're champions," said Lopes senior guard Ray Harrison, who is 8-0 in WAC Tournament games. "So I feel like our mentality has just been molded into that type of mentality. We just expect to win. Everybody's energy is where it needs to be. It definitely does play a factor whenever it's win or go home."For the 15th time this season, GCU (25-7) held an opponent to 40% shooting or less.
That paired well with Lopes senior power forward JaKobe Coles using his first WAC Tournament as a venue for the best basketball performance of his career. After a 24-point quarterfinal, Coles scored 22 in the semifinal for the first consecutive 20-point games of his career.
Coles, Harrison and re-emerging graduate swingman Tyon Grant-Foster took turns producing key, steely points Friday night. The trio scored GCU's final 20 points, which were needed when California Baptist scorched a late 4-for-5 stretch of 3-point shooting.
"They're all excellent basketball players," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "What I enjoyed is how well they've really played together these last two games. Each guy's had spurts that's carried us throughout the game. That's a great compliment to them being really good players and also being really good teammates."
The physical play of California Baptist jammed lanes and kept GCU on the perimeter early. The game slogged to a Lancers 14-12 lead through 13 minutes with the Lopes already committing seven turnovers.
California Baptist missed its next nine shots, sprinkling four turnovers amid that eight-minute scoreless stretch. GCU pounced with 13 unanswered points that included graduate power forward Lok Wur driving for a baseline slam and nailing a 3-pointer.Wur and sophomore guards Caleb Shaw and Makaih Williams outscored California Baptist's bench 13-3 and outrebounded it 9-1.
"When you get to the tournament and play this many games in a short amount of time, you've got to have a lot of different bodies that can go in and help you," Drew said. "Our eight-man rotation was really good, and everybody helped us."
After not shooting a first-half free throw, GCU went 19 for 23 at the free throw line in the second half. That helped grow the lead to 15 when a possession with four offensive rebounds led to a Williams driving score for a 55-38 lead with 7:25 to go.
That made for 38 Lancers points in 32 1/2 minutes at that stage.
"Grand Canyon is a really strong defensive program," California Baptist head coach Rick Croy said. "We needed to, early in the game, knock them back with some shotmaking, with some precision offensively. And they stifled us early. We had a real hard time. We had a stretch there where we just couldn't score for a while. And when you get behind against those guys, they have enough talent to make it hard the rest of the way."
Grant-Foster's impact is right on time after he was out injured for nearly four weeks, and participated in five-on-five work twice before starting Wednesday's quarterfinal."Tyon was really big," Drew said. "He got off to a slow start, and he came through and had just a monster second half for us."
Grant-Foster made 6 of 8 shots in the second half, when he scored 15 of his 18 points by driving into the paint and finishing with a variety of spin moves, post-ups and high-rising scores.
"The last five minutes is when I got comfortable," Grant-Foster said. "I haven't played in 3 1/2, four weeks. I go out there and try to do things when my body isn't in the best shape that it was before I went down. That's when I caught my wind. Coach and my teammates trusted me to make plays down the stretch."
GCU and Utah Valley, the tournament's top two seeds, have not met since Feb. 1 when the Lopes salvaged a series split. GCU won 75-57 at home after Utah Valley took a 72-64 home win on Jan. 9.
Saturday night's WAC Tournament championship game will be broadcast on ESPN2 with play-by-play announcer Dave Feldman and color commentator Jarod Haase.
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ 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