Lopes win at The Pit for 3rd consecutive win

Saturday, January 17

Albuquerque, N.M.

2:30 p.m. (MST)

Grand Canyon

6-12,5-3Mountain West

New Mexico

12-7,4-4Mountain West

Grand Canyon

New Mexico

1/17/2026 8:03:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

GCU's LaMendola shines with 14-point, 14 rebound performance

By: Nick Macdonald

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Entering one of the loudest environments in college basketball at 5,238 feet above sea level, Grand Canyon left The Pit winners of three straight, taking down New Mexico 75-62 on national television Saturday.

The win was No. 2 on the day for GCU basketball, mirroring a men's victory over No. 23 Utah State two hours prior on FS1.

"I thought from the start, we didn't wait around," Lopes head coach Winston Gandy said. "That's a good team we played against, but I thought we did a really good job imposing our will at the start of the game. That set the tone with no dropoff with everyone who was coming in and out."

The victory moves the Lopes to 6-12 overall and 5-3 in Mountain West play. GCU's conference record is good for fourth place among 12 teams. Regardless of a Boise State win tonight, the Lopes hold a top-four spot in the conference standings eight games into a 20-game conference schedule.

Four Lopes finished in double-figure scoring as the team shot a season-best 51.8% from the field and registered its sixth consecutive game shooting 75% or better at the line with double-digit attempts.

After her first career scoreless game Wednesday, GCU sophomore guard Chloe Mann led all scorers with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Senior teammate Anisa Jeffries added 11 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists, and GCU freshman guard Ines Zounia notched her second straight double-figure scoring game with 11 points and four rebounds Saturday. Zounia finished the week with 29 points in two Lopes victories.

Plenty of Lopes made valuable contributions against New Mexico (12-7, 4-4 MW), and the highlighted feature came from junior guard Julianna LaMendola. The Texas native had zero points and nine rebounds at the half and finished the night with 14 points and 14 boards, her second double-double of the season.

"I wasn't frustrated going into halftime, knowing we were up as a team," LaMendola said. "Coach (Gandy) told me, 'Stay calm and it will come to you,' and it sure did in the second half."

The 14 rebounds tied a season high for most boards by a Lope this season and set a career high for LaMendola.

GCU led 14-13 at the end of the first quarter before rattling off 27 second-quarter points, two shy of the most points it has scored in any quarter this season.

Mann poured in 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting, Jeffries added seven and Zounia tallied six, all three knocking down a 3-pointer.

GCU led by 11 at the half, and after the Lobos got within four with 2:13 left in the third, ended the quarter on a 7-2 run to lead by nine.

The Lopes never let New Mexico get within eight points in the fourth, closing out the win by shooting 50% over the final 10 minutes and 80% from the line.

"Jules (LaMendola) and our 5s did a great job at preventing easy layups," Gandy said. "I thought our guards did a great job with their closeouts, but knowing what New Mexico does so well, we couldn't keep it in the 60s. They're too tough from that standpoint, so the spread of wealth from everybody helped the whole team play well."

New Mexico came in allowing 62.4 points per game and ranked fifth in the Mountain West in field goal percentage defense.

GCU won the rebounding battle 41-32, its fifth game pulling down 40 or more boards to improve to 4-1 in such games. Eleven of the 41 boards came on the offensive end, led by sophomore Faith Carson, who had three of her six on the offensive glass.

"Both Norah (Moo) and Faith were integral parts to our success today," LaMendola said. "There were multiple times where Faith saved us on the rotation and being aggressive on the rebounds. It's hard to play 30 minutes each and every night and having them come off the bench and produce the way they did, I am very proud of their growth over the last two weeks."

GCU continues its road trip Wednesday with a rematch against third-place Colorado State at 6:30 p.m. Live coverage will be on the Mountain West Network.