Completed Event: Men's Basketball at Nevada on January 27, 2026 , Loss , 60, to, 66 , (OT)
M Basketball
at Nevada
L 60-66
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Wednesday, February 11
Phoenix, Ariz.
8 p.m.
Grand Canyon
15-9,8-5Mountain West
64
vs
70
New Mexico
19-6,10-4Mountain West
1
2
F
New Mexico
40
30
70
Grand Canyon
27
37
64
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
Huge comeback goes for naught vs. Lobos
2/12/2026 12:25:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
Lopes rally from 20-point deficit to lead but allow 10-2 run at end
A team might not have to start well and finish well to win a basketball game, but it seldom can't do either and still prevail.
New Mexico outscored Grand Canyon 11-0 in the first five minutes and 10-2 in the final five minutes of Wednesday night's game at Global Credit Union Arena, leaving a stirring comeback to be irrelevant to the result – a 70-64 Lobos victory that slides the Lopes to fifth place in the Mountain West after their first consecutive losses of the season.
GCU (15-9, 8-5 Mountain West) rallied from a 20-point deficit to take the lead on four occasions, the last of which was a 62-60 advantage with 6:11 remaining after Lopes senior guard Jaden Henley electrified the Havocs' Electrolope night with a 3-point play on a fastbreak slam.
But down to a six-man, second-half rotation, GCU seemingly ran out of juice to go the next 4 1/2 minutes without scoring on a distressing 3-point shooting night. As the Lobos went to a zone defense to stop the Lopes' rim attacks, GCU missed seven consecutive 3-point shots in the final five minutes.
Among them, Henley scored inside to cut New Mexico's lead to 65-64 with 1:44 to play and the Lopes made a stop. But just as when they took the 62-60 lead, GCU had three consecutive possessions with missed 3s by three different Lopes.
"You spend a lot to get back," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "You shouldn't have been in that situation. We just talked about that. We were proud of them for what they did when they got to that point. We talked about it when we actually got the lead, like 'Nothing changes. We're guarding just as hard. Offense, we're attacking, being aggressive as much as we were when we were down.' "
The Lopes trailed 38-18 before gaining traction to trail by 13 at halftime. But GCU still trailed by 11 about 6 1/2 minutes into the second half until Lopes junior guard Makaih Williams caught fire.
Williams scored 13 consecutive Lopes points with mostly driving ability, he also connected on his only 3 of the game and a pull-up jumper in the stretch. By the time he finished the tear on back-to-back rim runs for layins, GCU had its first lead of the game, 55-54, with 9:09 to go.
"I thought they were clearly the more physical team in the second half, at least for a big portion of that," New Mexico first-year head coach Eric Olen told the Albuquerque Journal. "And so those are things that we got to understand and try to adjust to. There's still a lot of time left. We can still improve. And I think it's important that we keep that focus, and we don't become prisoners to the results."
The Lopes outrebounded the Lobos 22-11 in the second half, but New Mexico's second chances wound up dooming GCU. The Lobos moved ahead late on consecutive follow scores by freshman guard Jake Hall (23 points) and freshman center Tomislav Buljan (12 points, nine rebounds). They were New Mexico's only second-chance baskets of the game.
GCU improved its shooting from 31.3% in the first half to 46.4% in the second half but also cut New Mexico's shooting from 60.0% in the first half to 34.6% in the second half.
"In the second half, I thought we were aggressive," Drew said. "I thought we finally started connecting. We started actually guarding guys, giving max effort and trying to stay in front of somebody instead of backing up to where you're basically going to get beat. The defense got better."
Williams, Henley and senior guard Brian Moore Jr. each scored in double digits in the second half, but the starters played all of the second half except for graduate power forward Wilhelm Breidenbach's five minutes.
Despite being saddled with his fourth foul with 10 minutes to go and feeling ill Wednesday, GCU freshman center Efe Demirel finished the game and kept the Lopes alive down the stretch by blocking a shot inside and deflecting a fastbreak pass on consecutive possessions. He finished with four points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 28 minutes.
"Defensively, he was really good in the second half," Drew said. "In Efe's defense, he was getting IVs today. He hasn't been feeling great. While some guys were resting, he was getting IVs trying to just feel better. So credit him for trying to play tonight and doing what we did. I have a lot of respect for a guy that knows he doesn't feel his best, and he knows it's going to be a tough, physical game, and he still goes out and plays with the energy that he played with. That makes me more fond of Efe and his toughness to be able to come out and do that."
New Mexico reduced the home environment's effect early when it shut out GCU for the first five minutes of the game, when the Lopes opened the game with four jump shots and went 0 for 9 as the Lobos took an 11-0 lead despite not making their first field goal for 3 1/2 minutes.
Hall, a 6-foot-4 guard, gave the Lopes difficulty just as he had in the first meeting, but the difference in the first half was 6-foot-9 junior forward Antonio Chol, who went from scoring 10 points in the previous three games to having 10 points in Wednesday's first 11 minutes.
GCU was 6 for 26 from the field and 1 for 10 on 3s when New Mexico took its largest lead, 38-18, on a 3-pointer from Hall.
"You can't beat a good team going 4 for 25 (on 3s)," Drew said. "I thought we had a lot of really good looks, and we didn't make them. Credit them. Hall goes 4 for 5 from 3."
GCU had won five of six games when it lost junior guard Caleb Shaw to an injury and has lost three of five games since then.
"You miss one more perimeter guy that's physical and that plays with a ton of emotion and passion, that gives you some toughness and that keeps some bodies fresh," Drew said. "We rode those three perimeter guys the whole second half and Nana (Owusu-Anane) because of our inability to be able to sub right now.
"I'm going to keep pushing them. At some point, players have got to make plays. Their guys made a lot of one-on-one plays. When we came back, our guys made a lot of plays. But you can't be spotty like that. You've got to be better from the jump. We're going to talk about that tomorrow in-depth and try to fix something because we're not the same team as we were two weeks ago, and right now it's got to change. We've got to get back to that team."
New Mexico, stinging after two home defeats, had lost its defensively strong ways in the past three games but has held GCU to 64 points and sub-40% shooting in each meeting this season.
The Lopes locked down on the Lobos in the second half, keeping New Mexico to 6-for-21 shooting until a 3-for-5 finish. The first two were putbacks to retake the lead, and the last was the game's clutchest shot. With New Mexico leading 65-64 and the shot clock winding down, Hall dribbled to the right side of the baseline and hit a fadeaway 16-foot jumper for a 67-64 lead with 29.1 seconds remaining.
The loss sends GCU to the road on its first two-game losing streak of the season. The Lopes play at San José State on Saturday at 3 p.m. (Phoenix time) before playing at San Diego State on Tuesday night.
"Mental toughness is such a vital part when you're playing in a tough league that you've got to bring it every night," Drew said. "The mental part is just as important as the physical. There's going to be ups and downs, and there's going to be adversity.
"We're going to keep driving them, and we're going to try to find more mental toughness in everybody collectively. We need to show mental toughness for 40 minutes, not 24 minutes."
New Mexico outscored Grand Canyon 11-0 in the first five minutes and 10-2 in the final five minutes of Wednesday night's game at Global Credit Union Arena, leaving a stirring comeback to be irrelevant to the result – a 70-64 Lobos victory that slides the Lopes to fifth place in the Mountain West after their first consecutive losses of the season.
GCU (15-9, 8-5 Mountain West) rallied from a 20-point deficit to take the lead on four occasions, the last of which was a 62-60 advantage with 6:11 remaining after Lopes senior guard Jaden Henley electrified the Havocs' Electrolope night with a 3-point play on a fastbreak slam.But down to a six-man, second-half rotation, GCU seemingly ran out of juice to go the next 4 1/2 minutes without scoring on a distressing 3-point shooting night. As the Lobos went to a zone defense to stop the Lopes' rim attacks, GCU missed seven consecutive 3-point shots in the final five minutes.
Among them, Henley scored inside to cut New Mexico's lead to 65-64 with 1:44 to play and the Lopes made a stop. But just as when they took the 62-60 lead, GCU had three consecutive possessions with missed 3s by three different Lopes.
"You spend a lot to get back," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "You shouldn't have been in that situation. We just talked about that. We were proud of them for what they did when they got to that point. We talked about it when we actually got the lead, like 'Nothing changes. We're guarding just as hard. Offense, we're attacking, being aggressive as much as we were when we were down.' "
The Lopes trailed 38-18 before gaining traction to trail by 13 at halftime. But GCU still trailed by 11 about 6 1/2 minutes into the second half until Lopes junior guard Makaih Williams caught fire.
Williams scored 13 consecutive Lopes points with mostly driving ability, he also connected on his only 3 of the game and a pull-up jumper in the stretch. By the time he finished the tear on back-to-back rim runs for layins, GCU had its first lead of the game, 55-54, with 9:09 to go."I thought they were clearly the more physical team in the second half, at least for a big portion of that," New Mexico first-year head coach Eric Olen told the Albuquerque Journal. "And so those are things that we got to understand and try to adjust to. There's still a lot of time left. We can still improve. And I think it's important that we keep that focus, and we don't become prisoners to the results."
The Lopes outrebounded the Lobos 22-11 in the second half, but New Mexico's second chances wound up dooming GCU. The Lobos moved ahead late on consecutive follow scores by freshman guard Jake Hall (23 points) and freshman center Tomislav Buljan (12 points, nine rebounds). They were New Mexico's only second-chance baskets of the game.
GCU improved its shooting from 31.3% in the first half to 46.4% in the second half but also cut New Mexico's shooting from 60.0% in the first half to 34.6% in the second half.
"In the second half, I thought we were aggressive," Drew said. "I thought we finally started connecting. We started actually guarding guys, giving max effort and trying to stay in front of somebody instead of backing up to where you're basically going to get beat. The defense got better."
Williams, Henley and senior guard Brian Moore Jr. each scored in double digits in the second half, but the starters played all of the second half except for graduate power forward Wilhelm Breidenbach's five minutes.Despite being saddled with his fourth foul with 10 minutes to go and feeling ill Wednesday, GCU freshman center Efe Demirel finished the game and kept the Lopes alive down the stretch by blocking a shot inside and deflecting a fastbreak pass on consecutive possessions. He finished with four points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 28 minutes.
"Defensively, he was really good in the second half," Drew said. "In Efe's defense, he was getting IVs today. He hasn't been feeling great. While some guys were resting, he was getting IVs trying to just feel better. So credit him for trying to play tonight and doing what we did. I have a lot of respect for a guy that knows he doesn't feel his best, and he knows it's going to be a tough, physical game, and he still goes out and plays with the energy that he played with. That makes me more fond of Efe and his toughness to be able to come out and do that."
New Mexico reduced the home environment's effect early when it shut out GCU for the first five minutes of the game, when the Lopes opened the game with four jump shots and went 0 for 9 as the Lobos took an 11-0 lead despite not making their first field goal for 3 1/2 minutes.
Hall, a 6-foot-4 guard, gave the Lopes difficulty just as he had in the first meeting, but the difference in the first half was 6-foot-9 junior forward Antonio Chol, who went from scoring 10 points in the previous three games to having 10 points in Wednesday's first 11 minutes.
GCU was 6 for 26 from the field and 1 for 10 on 3s when New Mexico took its largest lead, 38-18, on a 3-pointer from Hall."You can't beat a good team going 4 for 25 (on 3s)," Drew said. "I thought we had a lot of really good looks, and we didn't make them. Credit them. Hall goes 4 for 5 from 3."
GCU had won five of six games when it lost junior guard Caleb Shaw to an injury and has lost three of five games since then.
"You miss one more perimeter guy that's physical and that plays with a ton of emotion and passion, that gives you some toughness and that keeps some bodies fresh," Drew said. "We rode those three perimeter guys the whole second half and Nana (Owusu-Anane) because of our inability to be able to sub right now.
"I'm going to keep pushing them. At some point, players have got to make plays. Their guys made a lot of one-on-one plays. When we came back, our guys made a lot of plays. But you can't be spotty like that. You've got to be better from the jump. We're going to talk about that tomorrow in-depth and try to fix something because we're not the same team as we were two weeks ago, and right now it's got to change. We've got to get back to that team."
New Mexico, stinging after two home defeats, had lost its defensively strong ways in the past three games but has held GCU to 64 points and sub-40% shooting in each meeting this season.
The Lopes locked down on the Lobos in the second half, keeping New Mexico to 6-for-21 shooting until a 3-for-5 finish. The first two were putbacks to retake the lead, and the last was the game's clutchest shot. With New Mexico leading 65-64 and the shot clock winding down, Hall dribbled to the right side of the baseline and hit a fadeaway 16-foot jumper for a 67-64 lead with 29.1 seconds remaining.
The loss sends GCU to the road on its first two-game losing streak of the season. The Lopes play at San José State on Saturday at 3 p.m. (Phoenix time) before playing at San Diego State on Tuesday night.
"Mental toughness is such a vital part when you're playing in a tough league that you've got to bring it every night," Drew said. "The mental part is just as important as the physical. There's going to be ups and downs, and there's going to be adversity.
"We're going to keep driving them, and we're going to try to find more mental toughness in everybody collectively. We need to show mental toughness for 40 minutes, not 24 minutes."
Team Stats
UNM
GCU
FG%
.471
.383
3FG%
.563
.160
FT%
.722
.778
RB
31
35
TO
14
12
STL
6
8
Game Leaders
Pts
20
FGM
7
3FGM
1
FTM
5
Pts
16
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
16
FGM
6
3FGM
1
FTM
3
Pts
4
FGM
1
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's BasketballC
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballGCU Men's Basketball vs. New Mexico - Postgame with Bryce Drew
Thursday, February 12
GCU Men's Basketball at UNLV - Postgame with Bryce Drew
Tuesday, February 10
GCU Men's Basketball vs. Air Force - Postgame with Jaden Henley, Brian Moore Jr.
Wednesday, February 04
GCU Men's Basketball vs. Air Force - Postgame with Bryce Drew
Wednesday, February 04