Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus Oklahoma State on December 6, 2025 , Loss , 78, to, 84
M Basketball
vs Oklahoma State
L 78-84
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, January 30
Phoenix, Ariz.
7 p.m.
Grand Canyon
vs
Boise State
Photo by: Noah Powers
Game at Boise State provides toughness check
1/6/2026 6:28:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
Lopes play 1st game on FS1 against well-tested Broncos
BOISE, Idaho – When the calendar flipped forward to January, Grand Canyon head coach Bryce Drew felt like his team regressed to its November ways in a Saturday home loss to Colorado State.
To get back to carrying over the ways of its three-win December finish, the Lopes worked on restoring winning habits and toughness this week. They will need that stability amid the irregularity of Mountain West scheduling, which puts GCU at Boise State on Wednesday night with a 9 p.m. (Phoenix time) tipoff for national television on FS1.
The unrelenting challenges of the Lopes' Mountain West debut season will change the pattern of game days and tip times, but that feeling is just for three coaches and two rotation players who knew the Thursday-Saturday pattern of WAC sets.
The Lopes (8-5, 1-1 MW) can't afford to be comfortable, or games like Saturday's 70-60 loss to Colorado State occur. GCU trailed the Rams by 25, the Lopes' largest home deficit since February 2020, before playing with the urgency and physicality that practices featured this week. Drew believed the 12-day layoff accounted for some of the lack of grit, which Boise State is capable of exposing with its conference-leading rebounding. The Broncos' plus-8.4 margin per game ranks 30th nationally.
"We're going to have to be elite in a lot of areas," Drew said. "They know we didn't play like we're capable of. They're excited to get back on the court and have a chance to play better than what we did."
Drew said the Lopes were not as physical as Colorado State at either end of the floor. The disconnect showed more offensively with too little passing and moving and too much dribbling, but GCU also switched too readily defensively against the Rams' screens.
Lopes junior guard Caleb Shaw called Monday's rigorous practice "brutal."
"But we needed it," Shaw said. "It was good to regroup and get back on the same page. We weren't where we needed to be Saturday. We talked after the game about being desperate every single game. Every single Mountain West game is going to be hard. We've got to be desperate going into every single one. We talked about having a better edge and better mentality approaching the game."
While GCU has been undergoing a toughness check since Saturday at San Diego State, Boise State head coach Leon Rice issued one to the Broncos at halftime of their game Saturday night. Boise State had fallen behind 42-18 because of a 28-3 Aztecs run over an eight-minute stretch with no made Broncos field goals.
Boise State (9-5, 1-2 MW) rallied from a 50-29 halftime hole to go three overtimes before losing 110-107 despite leading by five during the third overtime and getting 29 points from power forward Javan Buchanan.
With the third-strongest schedule in the nation (Division I opponents only), Boise State has played nine top-100 NET rankings to rank 44th in NET. Going 1-1 in games against Division II opponents does not factor in NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool).
"We're going to find out our real toughness," Rice, who is 100-32 in MW home games, told media after the loss at San Diego State.
"We've got to build it back up and get back. We're playing a tough Grand Canyon team that has a lot of great athletes. If we're not tough for 40 minutes … we've got to be able to get (the SDSU loss) off of us and go."
Boise State shockingly lost its home opener 79-78 to Division II Hawaii Pacific on Nov. 3 but has won six consecutive games since then. The Broncos are averaging 9,842 fans per game at ExtraMile Arena, where the Lopes arrived for a Tuesday night practice.
"It's definitely a different rhythm," Drew said of a conference schedule with games on Tuesday (five), Wednesday (four), Friday (one) and Saturday (10). "Hopefully, we'll adjust to it quickly. For five years, we've been on a weekly routing from a practice, travel and playing standpoint. It's something we have to get used to."
To get back to carrying over the ways of its three-win December finish, the Lopes worked on restoring winning habits and toughness this week. They will need that stability amid the irregularity of Mountain West scheduling, which puts GCU at Boise State on Wednesday night with a 9 p.m. (Phoenix time) tipoff for national television on FS1.
The unrelenting challenges of the Lopes' Mountain West debut season will change the pattern of game days and tip times, but that feeling is just for three coaches and two rotation players who knew the Thursday-Saturday pattern of WAC sets.The Lopes (8-5, 1-1 MW) can't afford to be comfortable, or games like Saturday's 70-60 loss to Colorado State occur. GCU trailed the Rams by 25, the Lopes' largest home deficit since February 2020, before playing with the urgency and physicality that practices featured this week. Drew believed the 12-day layoff accounted for some of the lack of grit, which Boise State is capable of exposing with its conference-leading rebounding. The Broncos' plus-8.4 margin per game ranks 30th nationally.
"We're going to have to be elite in a lot of areas," Drew said. "They know we didn't play like we're capable of. They're excited to get back on the court and have a chance to play better than what we did."
Drew said the Lopes were not as physical as Colorado State at either end of the floor. The disconnect showed more offensively with too little passing and moving and too much dribbling, but GCU also switched too readily defensively against the Rams' screens.
Lopes junior guard Caleb Shaw called Monday's rigorous practice "brutal.""But we needed it," Shaw said. "It was good to regroup and get back on the same page. We weren't where we needed to be Saturday. We talked after the game about being desperate every single game. Every single Mountain West game is going to be hard. We've got to be desperate going into every single one. We talked about having a better edge and better mentality approaching the game."
While GCU has been undergoing a toughness check since Saturday at San Diego State, Boise State head coach Leon Rice issued one to the Broncos at halftime of their game Saturday night. Boise State had fallen behind 42-18 because of a 28-3 Aztecs run over an eight-minute stretch with no made Broncos field goals.
Boise State (9-5, 1-2 MW) rallied from a 50-29 halftime hole to go three overtimes before losing 110-107 despite leading by five during the third overtime and getting 29 points from power forward Javan Buchanan.
With the third-strongest schedule in the nation (Division I opponents only), Boise State has played nine top-100 NET rankings to rank 44th in NET. Going 1-1 in games against Division II opponents does not factor in NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool).
"We're going to find out our real toughness," Rice, who is 100-32 in MW home games, told media after the loss at San Diego State.
"We've got to build it back up and get back. We're playing a tough Grand Canyon team that has a lot of great athletes. If we're not tough for 40 minutes … we've got to be able to get (the SDSU loss) off of us and go."
Boise State shockingly lost its home opener 79-78 to Division II Hawaii Pacific on Nov. 3 but has won six consecutive games since then. The Broncos are averaging 9,842 fans per game at ExtraMile Arena, where the Lopes arrived for a Tuesday night practice.
"It's definitely a different rhythm," Drew said of a conference schedule with games on Tuesday (five), Wednesday (four), Friday (one) and Saturday (10). "Hopefully, we'll adjust to it quickly. For five years, we've been on a weekly routing from a practice, travel and playing standpoint. It's something we have to get used to."
Lope tracks
- GCU lost its previous trip to Boise State in December 2017, when it lost 85-80 in double overtimes despite 15 points and 12 rebounds from Keonta Vernon. The Lopes avenged the win a year later at home, beating the Broncos 69-67 on an Alessandro Lever game-winner.
- After its past eight losses, GCU has won the next game.
- This game marks the Lopes' debut on FS1, which will broadcast six more GCU games this season.
- GCU ranks third in the Mountain West for least points allowed per game (68.8), allowing 70 or fewer points in six of the past eight games.
- Three Lopes starters (Efe Demirel, Brian Moore Jr. and Caleb Shaw) scored two points each Saturday.
- GCU graduate power forward Nana Owusu-Anane ranks second in the Mountain West with 9.0 rebounds per game.
- Boise State has gone 83-13 (.865) at home over the past seven seasons.
- Broncos junior Andrew Meadow played 51 minutes in Saturday's triple-overtime loss at San Diego State. The 6-foot-7 forward scored a career-high 25 points and did not make a turnover.
- Boise State ranks in the national bottom 20 for blocked shots per game (1.9) and steals per game (4.9)
- Broncos opponents average only 10.6 turnovers per game.
- Boise State has scored more than 100 points this season against San Diego State, Utah Valley and Chaminade.
- The FS1 broadcast crew will be play-by-play announcer Trent Rush and analyst Greg Herenda.
Players Mentioned
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