Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus Coastal Carolina on December 13, 2025 , Win , 82, to, 61
M Basketball
vs Coastal Carolina
W 82-61
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Wednesday, January 7
ExtraMile Arena • Boise, Idaho
9 p.m.
Grand Canyon
9-5,2-1Mountain West
75
at
58
Boise State
9-6,1-3Mountain West
1
2
F
Grand Canyon
37
38
75
Boise St.
27
31
58
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
GCU turns physical for win at Boise State
1/8/2026 2:45:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
Broncos' largest home loss deficit, first minus-10 on boards since 2019-20 season
BOISE, Idaho – When the rest of college basketball rested Wednesday night, Grand Canyon went to work.
A national television audience for a standalone game saw how physically GCU can play, but Boise State had to feel it.
The Lopes took the game to the Broncos with tenacity in the paint, relentlessness on the boards and pressure on the ball to lead the entire second half and win 75-58 in front of 8,806 fans at ExtraMile Arena.
Boise State had taken 13 previous home losses over the past seasons, ranked No. 44 nationally in NET and had been outrebounding teams by 8.4 boards per game.
GCU diffused the home-court advantage just as it had in its Mountain West debut at Wyoming, and the Lopes became the first team to outrebound the Broncos by 10 on their home floor since January 2020. The Quad 1 win also marked Boise State's second-largest margin for a home defeat during head coach Leon Rice's 16 seasons at Boise State.
After a Saturday home loss to Colorado State, GCU head coach Bryce Drew asked for improved physicality and a resumption of its usual rebounding advantage. The Lopes (9-5, 2-1 MW) answered with practice habits and rewarded themselves with game production.
"That was a different level of physicality right there," Drew said. "I'm so proud of our guys for how they responded. We had guys play a lot of minutes. There was a lot of physical toll in that game. Man, what a blessing for those guys to play like they did and close out the past five minutes."
On one of the most experienced teams in the nation, the tone was set by a freshman. Efe Demirel, GCU's 7-foot-1 center from Turkey, has scored more points but has never been so pivotal as he was for the 9:15 p.m. tipoff Saturday.
Demirel scored the first eight points of the game, with graduate guard Brian Moore Jr. finding him for his first two buckets in pick-and-roll play before junior guard Caleb Shaw also did. By the time graduate power forward Nana Owusu-Anane dished an interior pass to Demirel for a slam, the energy flowed through the Lopes like a supercharger for their mission of aggression.
That lead went away, but GCU's physical play did not. Boise State shot 28% from the field in the first half and 35% for the game to take a lopsided loss despite outscoring GCU by 11 on free throws.
"After the last game, I was thinking that I need to be more useful for my teammates," Demirel said. "I'm trying to open the space and finish the ball.
"With the guards, they are trying to look at me. They are trying to find me. The pick-and-roll was the best, for sure."
Demirel was just the start on a 50% Lopes shooting night. He was one of GCU's four double-digit scorers, led by senior guard Jaden Henley's 22 with 14 of them coming in the second half. Shaw scored all 10 of his points in the second half, and junior guard Makaih Williams came off the bench for nine of his 14 after halftime.
"Efe did a great job finishing strong," Drew said. "He scored our first eight points of the game, and those were really big to give us some confidence and give us some trust in each other that if we move the ball, we can score."
Boise State put together 9-0 and 8-0 runs in the first half to take the lead for two stanzas before GCU closed the first half with a 15-4 run that Demirel capped with a hook shot and 3-point play on a putback. The Broncos shot 28% in the first half after not missing their final six shots.
The Lopes led 37-27 at halftime but were facing a team that had just rallied from a 21-point halftime deficit Saturday night at San Diego State, where they forced overtime beore falling in the three-OT thriller.
The Broncos seemingly were needing a conference bounce-back as badly as the Lopes, but they could not rally all the way back. GCU opened its largest lead at 47-29 when Owusu-Anane knocked down a 3 off Moore's assist with 16:25 to go.
The Lopes were not unnerved by a sequence of a flagrant foul call on junior guard Makaih Williams, a double technical involving graduate power forward Wilhelm Breidenbach and an 18-4 Broncos run. GCU's lead had been reduced to 51-47 with 9 1/2 minutes to go when a 2-3 zone proved to be another successful defensive wrinkle. The Lopes already had bothered the Broncos with 1-3-1 half-court pressure to seize momentum, starting with back-to-back Boise State airballs.
With one timeout remaining when Boise State made its run, Drew said he told the team, "It's up to you guys. You have to do this yourself."
GCU did not shoot the 3 well (6 for 21), but Shaw and Williams canned critical 3s during a 17-4 Lopes run that flipped the game back into their control. Williams scored seven of the run's last nine points with his repertoire – making a 3, drawing a foul and scoring on a blow-by drive that sent Broncos fans to the exits. He had seemingly sealed the win by giving the Lopes a 68-51 lead with 2:21 remaining.
Williams' 16-point effort marked his fifth consecutive double-digit scoring game off the bench, giving him a 17.0 scoring average over those games.
"They beat us in every facet of the game," Boise State head coach Leon Rice said. "They were aggressive. They were tougher. They took the punch to us all night long.
"That team did whatever they wanted."
GCU went 15 for 23 from the field in the second half. The Lopes only made 12 turnovers in the game, but five came on their first 12 second-half possessions. They closed by not making a turnover on their last 12 possessions.
Until the Lopes' win at Boise State, only three other teams had beaten an above-.500 host by 17 points or more this season whien attempting at least 13 fewer free throws.
"The focus was tremendous at practice (this week)," Drew said. "On this trip before the game in the locker room, they were really focused and locked in. We told them they had to do a lot on the court together with each other being connected.
"It was fun to watch them come together how they did."
Even Rice acknowledged that GCU "out-toughed us from the first minute."
Drew ranked the win ahead of the Lopes' Mountain West-opening victory at Wyoming because of the bigger crowd and the game's physical nature. GCU scrambled defensively with Williams' speed allowing him to come from behind guards for three steals.The Lopes added six blocks, one off their season high, with Demirel and Owusu-Anane each swatting two.
GCU returned to Phoenix in the early morning Thursday with preparation ahead for a 6 p.m. Saturday conference game against San José State at Global Credit Union Arena. The Spartans have lost their first four MW games and are 5-10 overall.
A national television audience for a standalone game saw how physically GCU can play, but Boise State had to feel it.
The Lopes took the game to the Broncos with tenacity in the paint, relentlessness on the boards and pressure on the ball to lead the entire second half and win 75-58 in front of 8,806 fans at ExtraMile Arena.
Boise State had taken 13 previous home losses over the past seasons, ranked No. 44 nationally in NET and had been outrebounding teams by 8.4 boards per game.GCU diffused the home-court advantage just as it had in its Mountain West debut at Wyoming, and the Lopes became the first team to outrebound the Broncos by 10 on their home floor since January 2020. The Quad 1 win also marked Boise State's second-largest margin for a home defeat during head coach Leon Rice's 16 seasons at Boise State.
After a Saturday home loss to Colorado State, GCU head coach Bryce Drew asked for improved physicality and a resumption of its usual rebounding advantage. The Lopes (9-5, 2-1 MW) answered with practice habits and rewarded themselves with game production.
"That was a different level of physicality right there," Drew said. "I'm so proud of our guys for how they responded. We had guys play a lot of minutes. There was a lot of physical toll in that game. Man, what a blessing for those guys to play like they did and close out the past five minutes."
On one of the most experienced teams in the nation, the tone was set by a freshman. Efe Demirel, GCU's 7-foot-1 center from Turkey, has scored more points but has never been so pivotal as he was for the 9:15 p.m. tipoff Saturday.Demirel scored the first eight points of the game, with graduate guard Brian Moore Jr. finding him for his first two buckets in pick-and-roll play before junior guard Caleb Shaw also did. By the time graduate power forward Nana Owusu-Anane dished an interior pass to Demirel for a slam, the energy flowed through the Lopes like a supercharger for their mission of aggression.
That lead went away, but GCU's physical play did not. Boise State shot 28% from the field in the first half and 35% for the game to take a lopsided loss despite outscoring GCU by 11 on free throws.
"After the last game, I was thinking that I need to be more useful for my teammates," Demirel said. "I'm trying to open the space and finish the ball.
"With the guards, they are trying to look at me. They are trying to find me. The pick-and-roll was the best, for sure."
Demirel was just the start on a 50% Lopes shooting night. He was one of GCU's four double-digit scorers, led by senior guard Jaden Henley's 22 with 14 of them coming in the second half. Shaw scored all 10 of his points in the second half, and junior guard Makaih Williams came off the bench for nine of his 14 after halftime.
"Efe did a great job finishing strong," Drew said. "He scored our first eight points of the game, and those were really big to give us some confidence and give us some trust in each other that if we move the ball, we can score."
Boise State put together 9-0 and 8-0 runs in the first half to take the lead for two stanzas before GCU closed the first half with a 15-4 run that Demirel capped with a hook shot and 3-point play on a putback. The Broncos shot 28% in the first half after not missing their final six shots.The Lopes led 37-27 at halftime but were facing a team that had just rallied from a 21-point halftime deficit Saturday night at San Diego State, where they forced overtime beore falling in the three-OT thriller.
The Broncos seemingly were needing a conference bounce-back as badly as the Lopes, but they could not rally all the way back. GCU opened its largest lead at 47-29 when Owusu-Anane knocked down a 3 off Moore's assist with 16:25 to go.
The Lopes were not unnerved by a sequence of a flagrant foul call on junior guard Makaih Williams, a double technical involving graduate power forward Wilhelm Breidenbach and an 18-4 Broncos run. GCU's lead had been reduced to 51-47 with 9 1/2 minutes to go when a 2-3 zone proved to be another successful defensive wrinkle. The Lopes already had bothered the Broncos with 1-3-1 half-court pressure to seize momentum, starting with back-to-back Boise State airballs.
With one timeout remaining when Boise State made its run, Drew said he told the team, "It's up to you guys. You have to do this yourself."
GCU did not shoot the 3 well (6 for 21), but Shaw and Williams canned critical 3s during a 17-4 Lopes run that flipped the game back into their control. Williams scored seven of the run's last nine points with his repertoire – making a 3, drawing a foul and scoring on a blow-by drive that sent Broncos fans to the exits. He had seemingly sealed the win by giving the Lopes a 68-51 lead with 2:21 remaining.
Williams' 16-point effort marked his fifth consecutive double-digit scoring game off the bench, giving him a 17.0 scoring average over those games.
"They beat us in every facet of the game," Boise State head coach Leon Rice said. "They were aggressive. They were tougher. They took the punch to us all night long."That team did whatever they wanted."
GCU went 15 for 23 from the field in the second half. The Lopes only made 12 turnovers in the game, but five came on their first 12 second-half possessions. They closed by not making a turnover on their last 12 possessions.
Until the Lopes' win at Boise State, only three other teams had beaten an above-.500 host by 17 points or more this season whien attempting at least 13 fewer free throws.
"The focus was tremendous at practice (this week)," Drew said. "On this trip before the game in the locker room, they were really focused and locked in. We told them they had to do a lot on the court together with each other being connected.
"It was fun to watch them come together how they did."
Even Rice acknowledged that GCU "out-toughed us from the first minute."
Drew ranked the win ahead of the Lopes' Mountain West-opening victory at Wyoming because of the bigger crowd and the game's physical nature. GCU scrambled defensively with Williams' speed allowing him to come from behind guards for three steals.The Lopes added six blocks, one off their season high, with Demirel and Owusu-Anane each swatting two.
GCU returned to Phoenix in the early morning Thursday with preparation ahead for a 6 p.m. Saturday conference game against San José State at Global Credit Union Arena. The Spartans have lost their first four MW games and are 5-10 overall.
Team Stats
GCU
Boise
FG%
.500
.347
3FG%
.286
.211
FT%
.750
.800
RB
38
28
TO
12
14
STL
8
4
Game Leaders
Pts
22
FGM
9
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Pts
16
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
13
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
10
FGM
4
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
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