Senior Night celebrates 6 Lopes for home finale

Thursday, March 5 \| 7 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| Global Credit Union Arena \| Phoenix, Ariz.

	UTAH TECH TRAILBLAZERS (6-23, 2-12 WAC)	at	GRAND CANYON LOPES (22-6, 12-2 WAC)

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Their impacts and memories with Grand Canyon basketball are several games from being complete, but six Lopes senior players will experience their final game at Global Credit Union Arena on Thursday night.

This group is largely responsible for continuing a program ascension with four GCU seniors who were instrumental in consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and two other seniors joining last summer for the pursuit of the Lopes' third Big Dance ticket, which could be punched a week from Saturday in Las Vegas.

GCU's immediate docket is full of important business Thursday with Senior Night recognizing six seniors and a group of student managers before a 7 p.m. must-win game against Utah Tech (6-23, 2-12 WAC).

The Lopes (22-6, 12-2 WAC) trail conference leader Utah Valley (21-7, 13-1 WAC) by one game entering the final two-game conference sets for each team. GCU follows Thursday night's home game with a Saturday trip to Abilene Christian, where Utah Valley plays the uptick Wildcats on Thursday night before finishing Saturday at Tarleton State. If GCU and Utah Valley ties, the Lopes likely would be the WAC Tournament No. 1 seed on a metrics tiebreaker because the teams split their head-to-head series.

A Thursday night win would give GCU a 16-1 home record, joining seven other teams nationally with 16 home wins this season. The Lopes enter Thursday at 31-1 (.969) in homes games over the past two seasons, trailing only Houston (33-1, .971) nationally during that span.

Before GCU fans turn Orleans Arena purple next week for the WAC Tournament, Thursday night offers a night of mutual appreciation for the senior players, Havocs and Lope Nation. With a tip of the cap to theme of the night, here are the six departing Lopes in order of seniority.

Ray Harrison

The 6-foot-4 guard from Greenville, South Carolina, is the only third-year Lopes player. In just three GCU seasons, Ray Harrison has reached No. 6 on the GCU career scoring leaderboard with 1,410 points, putting No. 5 (Jim Irvine, 1,420 in 1970-74) and No. 4 (Duane Gagnon, 1,490 in 1965-69) within reach. Including his collegiate beginning at Presbyterian, Harrison has started all 150 of his appearances and accumulated 2,301 points to rank 10th among all active Division I players.

With 11 more assists, Harrison would be the only active D-I player besides North Carolina's R.J. Davis, Arizona's Caleb Love and Alabama's Mark Sears to have a 2,000-point, 500-assist career. Only Sears has made more free throws than Harrison's 596. He leads the WAC this season with 88.6% free throw shooting and is making a career-high 36.2% of his 3-pointers to average 11.1 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists.

Harrison has been chosen to the All-WAC first team and second team in his first two GCU seasons and was the WAC Tournament's Most Outstanding Player in 2023, when he became the first player since Kemba Walker to accrue 80 points, 20 assists and 20 rebounds in a D-I conference tournament.

His father, Ray Sr., will travel from South Carolina to join Harrison's Senior Night.

"We're just like brothers, being around each other, spending time with each other, sweating with each other, going through the highs and lows," Harrison said of his teammates. "It has made us closer. We all feel for each other even more than we first got here.

"Every year, I try to just stay in the moment and cherish everything that's going on. I feel like this year has probably gone the quickest out of all my years. I don't know why. Being like an extra year, it zoomed. We're here, and I'm ready to finish strong. ... I feel good about it. I definitely want to be able to come back years from now and see how things are going. Hopefully, everything will continue to trend in a good direction."

Tyon Grant-Foster

For the second consecutive year, Tyon Grant-Foster has a Senior Night. Grant-Foster, a 6-foot-7 swingman, tested NBA Draft waters after winning WAC Player of the Year for his big-splash GCU debut in 2023-24. He elected to return and has been limited to 22 games but still joined the 1,000-point club at GCU in just 56 games with a Lopes career scoring average of 17.9 points, along with his 6.1 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.5 blocked shots per game.

GCU gave the Kansas City, Kansas, an opportunity to play after a heart issue kept him out of college basketball for two years. He became a Lute Olson National Player of the Year finalist and won WAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player as he set the GCU Division I-era record for points in a season (684). Grant-Foster ranks sixth in the WAC for scoring this season at 14.6 points per game and is averaging career highs for rebounds (6.2), assists (2.1), steals (1.9) and blocked shots (1.6).

An injury has kept Grant-Foster out the past three games but he said he is getting closer to a return to action. He is averaging 17.4 points on 53% shooting from the field since the new year began. Grant-Foster's mother, cousins and other relatives will join his Senior Night.

"I cherish it a lot," Grant-Foster said of GCU. "It was a great year last year. We're going to end this year great, going into the tournament and doing everything we need to do. I still love GCU, and I will always love GCU for giving me the opportunity to come back and play basketball again. Nothing changes."

Collin Moore

While matching last season's 8.2 scoring average, Collin Moore has given GCU more in other areas with improved shooting (29.5% to 37.2% on 3-pointers) and rebounding (2.9 per game to 3.6) with the same menacing defense.

Moore set the GCU Division I-era record for single-season steals (64) last season, when he was named to the All-WAC Defensive Team last season. At No. 2 in the WAC this season with 2.0 steals per game this season, he could break that record this season with 54 so far. With his previous time at Georgia State, Moore has swiped 176 career steals.

The 6-foot-4 native of North Little Rock, Arkansas, will be joined on his Senior Night by his mother, grandmother, four siblings, an uncle and two cousins.

"It's been a good journey," Moore said. "It was fun being here. A lot of memories. The job's not finished yet.

"At my old school, I was more of a scorer. Now, I'm capable of doing a lot of things other than just scoring and defending. I like how I'm able to do more of a variety of things."

Lök Wur

In two years at GCU, Lök Wur has experienced a basketball transformation. The 6-foot-9 native of North Omaha, Nebraska, went from averaging eight minutes per game and scoring 100 points over three Oregon seasons to being a key cog for GCU.

After ending his first Lopes season on a February-March tear with 10 points per game and 42% 3-point shooting, Wur continued to play a pivotal role this season and is averaging career highs across the board — 8.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 1.0 steals in 22 minutes per game. Wur's improbable putback turnaround jumper was the last-second game-winner against Saint Louis. He also will be finishing a graduate degree.

"The past couple years, we've been able to accomplish a lot," Wur said. "We've had a lot of fun winning a lot of games. To play one last home games is going to mean a lot to us. We accomplished a lot for the univeristy last season, and we're just trying to build on that heading into March.

Wur will be joined on Senior Night by his mother and older sister, as well as a second Omaha family that helped raise him in high school.

"I've grown a lot here in different areas, not just on the court but off the court, in many areas such as my defense. Things on offense have grown a lot for me. It's just continuing into the future."

JaKobe Coles

GCU was the third collegiate career stop for JaKobe Coles, and he has made the most of it with a career season in his lone Lopes year.

The 6-foot-7 power forward from Denton, Texas, transferred from TCU and posted career-best numbers this season in points per game (14.0), rebounds per game (6.0), assists per game (2.3), steals per game (1.1), blocked shots per game (0.9) and field goal shooting (51.2%). His first four career double-doubles have come this season for GCU, as well as his highest two assist games. His highest-scoring season pushed him past the 1,000-point career mark. Coles and Harrison are the only Lopes to start every game this season.

Coles will be joined on Senior Night by his parents, who relocated to Phoenix for his final college season.

"I've only been here a year, but it's honestly been amazing," Coles said. "The coaching staff has been open arms with me and my family since I got here on my first visit. I love the GCU crowd. I love everything about this program. It's a great culture here. It's going to be tough playing this last game, but it's going to be exciting as well. Moving forward, we've got a lot of things to accomplish still. Hopefully, we get to the NCAA tournament and do something special.

"Honestly, it's just been great. I've had the most fun this season. It's been a blessing for sure."

Jason Amador

When Jason Amador was left without a school after NAIA Saint Katherine's suddenly shut down, it was a dream scenario for him to land on the GCU roster as a graduate walk-on for a perennial 20-win Division I program. And then the experience turned even better.

The Coloroado River Indian Tribe member from Parker, Arizona, developed a devoted Havocs following in which they chanted "We want Jason" at the end of blowout wins. There were massive roars when the long-haired, headband-wearing guard scored his first points on a December layup against Life Pacific and another level of revelry when he made his first 3-pointer against Utah Valley last month. The aspiring coach learned about basketball and life from the staff, asking to be baptized in a campus pool by GCU assistant coach Casey Shaw.

Kids from his reservation will join Amador's parents and other relatives for his Senior Night.

"It's a blessing, just being able to come here and the family with how they welcomed me in," Amador said. "For some reason, it went by like that. I feel like I was just trying to get here, and now the last home game is coming up. Everything with the program and everything that happened this year with our ups and downs, now we're finally peaking and finding our rhythm. It's a huge blessing to be here and be around these guys, these teammates, the coaching staff, the managers. I love all of them. I have brothers for life now.

"I definitely am going to miss the Havocs a lot. They played a huge part in my time being here. I am truly grateful that I was able to experience everything that happened. Me being on the team, I thought that was going to be the end of the story, just supporting the guys. But able to have some special moments in my life that I'm able to look back on, like scoring my first basket against Life Pacific and seeing my family and the crowd jump up and down, that's what it is all for."

Thursday, March 5 | 7 p.m. (Phoenix time) | Global Credit Union Arena | Phoenix, Ariz.

Ray Harrison

Tyon Grant-Foster

Collin Moore

Lök Wur

JaKobe Coles

Jason Amador

Players Mentioned

Jason Amador

JaKobe Coles

Tyon Grant-Foster

Ray Harrison

Collin Moore

Lök Wur

Grand Canyon University Athletics