Lopes look for redeeming quality in Lobos visit

Wednesday, February 11

Phoenix, Ariz.

8 p.m.

Grand Canyon

New Mexico

Photo by: David Kadlubowski

2/10/2026 6:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

GCU tries to improve on previous game at New Mexico, Saturday loss at UNLV

By: Paul Coro

When Grand Canyon pursues its sixth consecutive home win and head coach Bryce Drew's 300th career win Wednesday night against New Mexico, the Lopes will tote notions to exact revenge and increase physicality because of the last time … the last time GCU played New Mexico and the last time GCU played a game.

Whether it is the Jan. 13 loss at New Mexico or the Saturday loss at UNLV, the Lopes are looking to make a turnaround like the kids' pregame carnival ride outside Global Credit Union Arena. If successful in the 8 p.m. Mountain West matchup on FS1, GCU (15-8, 8-4 MW) could jump New Mexico (18-6, 9-4 MW) in the conference standings.

It didn't look like the team we had in the previous month, Drew said of Saturday's 80-78 loss at UNLV. Hopefully, we can get back to that team.

Albuquerque, And the team of the previous month had not looked like the one that took an 87-64 loss at New Mexico on Jan. 13, when a second-half tie unraveled on top of Drew's second career ejection in an 87-64 loss – GCU's worst loss since January 2022, when Drew was ill and did not coach a 71-46 loss at Stephen F. Austin.

Until the UNLV loss, the Lopes had limited teams to 40% shooting or worse in six consecutive games and kept opponents to fewer than 70 points in the last five of those games. UNLV grabbed 13 offensive rebounds.

We've got to rebound it, Drew said of facing the Mountain West's No. 1 defensive rebounding team Wednesday night. Last time against New Mexico, we got outrebounded by 10. We got outrebounded on Saturday. We have to be more aggressive getting to the glass at both ends.

We're a different team than we were then (Jan. 13). You recall some of the game, but you also think of who we've been since then. We've been playing a lot better, so we need to obviously play a lot better than how we played at their place.

New Mexico is stinging from two consecutive home losses after having a 23-game winning streak at The Pit. The Lobos were allowing 67.5 points per game prior to yielding 85.7 points per game in their last three contests – a 90-80 win at San José State before Utah State won 86-66 and Boise State won 91-90 last week at The Pit.

We have to have some urgency to get some things corrected, New Mexico head coach Eric Olen said at his Monday press conference. We're in a difficult stretch of the schedule.

The Lobos shot 52.7% from the field in the first meeting with the Lopes, when New Mexico broke open the game as GCU managed one defensive stop over an 11-minute stretch of the second half.

Albuquerque, They're one of the better defensive teams in the conference, Olen said of GCU, which is allowing a conference-low 68.3 points per game. They have a lot of guys who can shoot it off the dribble and make some of the plays that we're talking about giving us issues. (Makaih) Williams, (Jaden) Henley and (Brian) Moore (Jr.) are playing better. Those guys are good, and they are adept at some of the things we've struggled with, so we certainly have our hands full.

The Lopes and Lobos were tied at 40-40 in the second half of a game remembered as a blowout.

New Mexico freshman guard Jake Hall scored 22 points, but the Lobos have multiple weapons with senior guard Luke Haupt coming off a career-high 30 points (previous 11) against Boise State and Lobos freshman center Tomislav Buljan nearly averaging a double-double at 12.4 points and a MW-leading 9.9 rebounds per game. New Mexico has the nation's only trio of double-digit scoring freshmen with Prescott, Arizona, native Uriah Tenette averaging 11.3 points per game off the bench.

We were in it for most of it, Henley said of the loss at New Mexico. We just kind of fell apart at the end. That last 14 minutes or so was pretty bad. That's all it takes to lose a game.

We've got to bounce back. We're going to be just fine.

The Lopes have been a bounce-back team all season, going 7-0 in games following a loss.

After GCU's loss at New Mexico, Olen discussed how The Pit wears down visitors. The Lopes hope the Havocs and a sold-out Global Credit Union Arena can have the same effect Wednesday night.

Especially in that first half, we saw some really great shotmaking from them, Haupt said Monday. That's why it stayed close. I think, ultimately, we kind of wore them down a little bit.

When I play, I don't hear really what the crowd is saying. I just feel the energy. Obviously, it's going to be hostile. They're going to be making noise when they need something good to happen, but I'm excited to see it and enjoy the experience.

GCU's urgency clicked late Saturday to nearly rally from a 15-point deficit in the final 3 1/2 minutes. There was no such surge in the first game against New Mexico, when GCU missed two chances to take an early-second half lead and it snowballed into nine consecutive misses.

We just have to pick on the small details of being physically tough and playing our game, Henley said. Physicality is probably the biggest thing and taking care of the ball. We've just got to take care of that.

Lope tracks

GCU has allowed 40.0% shooting from the field since Nov. 25. .In the six-year Drew coaching era, GCU ranks sixth nationally for opponent field goal percentage (40.1%).
Henley ranks sixth in the Mountain West for points per game (17.1). The Lopes are 6-0 when he scores 20 or more points.
GCU graduate power forward Nana Owusu-Anane ranks third in the Mountain West for rebounds per game (8.3) and sixth for blocks per game (0.96). He has played 37 or more minutes in six conference games.
In wins, Owusu-Anane shoots 49% and Henley shoots 51% from the field. In losses, they have shot 36% and 38%, respectively.
Williams has shot 46.4% from the field in his last three starts after shooting 21.5% in his first eight starts this season.
The Lopes are 14-0 in games they led at halftime.
GCU is 11-2 when it makes at least 30% of its 3-point shots.
The Lopes are 5-0 when junior guard Dusty Stromer scores 10 or more points.
GCU has a NET ranking of No. 70. New Mexico is No. 45.
New Mexico attempts the most 3-pointers in the Mountain West (26.9 per game) but ranks fifth in 3-point percentage (35.5%).
Hall has made multiple 3s in 11 consecutive games, going 39 for 79 (49.4%) during that stretch. He needs two 3s to break the Mountain West freshman single-season record of 75, set by San José State's Rashad Muhammad in 2013-14.
Buljan, a 23-year-old freshman Croatian, rattled off five consecutive double-doubles after last facing GCU. The 6-foot-9, 250-pounder had seven points and nine rebounds in Saturday's loss to Boise State.
Eight players have led the Lobos in scoring for a game this season, the most for New Mexico since 2019-20.
New Mexico has not played at GCU since 2014, when the Lopes recorded its only win in the series (1-5). Josh Braun scored 18 with four 3-pointers in a 68-65 victory.
The FS1 broadcast announcers will be Trent Rush and former Phoenix Suns player Casey Jacobsen.