Completed Event: Men's Basketball at UNLV on February 7, 2026 , Loss , 78, to, 80
M Basketball
at UNLV
L 78-80
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Thursday, March 12
Las Vegas, Nev.
2:30 p.m.
Grand Canyon
vs
Nevada
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
MW Championship era launches vs. Nevada
3/11/2026 4:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
Lopes get Wolf Pack rematch, play 2:30 p.m. quarterfinal in Vegas
LAS VEGAS – Grand Canyon's play this season pronounced its readiness for the Mountain West level long before the conference tournament braces for its first feel of "Lope Vegas."
The purple throng of GCU supporters shifts to the purple court of the Mountain West Championship at Thomas & Mack Center, where the Lopes are three wins in three days away from punching their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament trip.
The goal is as tangible as it proved to be with the regular-season title chase, which GCU came excruciatingly close to pulling off. Had GCU held a late lead at Utah State on Feb. 28, the Lopes (20-11) could have been co-champions and the No. 1 tournament seed. Instead, GCU tied for third place, resulting in a No. 4 seed in a conference of seven 20-win teams.
The Lopes' path begins with a 2:30 p.m. Thursday quarterfinal against Nevada (21-11) on CBS Sports Network. The Wolf Pack, the tournament's No. 5 seed, routed 12th-seeded Air Force 80-45 on Wednesday while GCU practiced next door on its bye day.
"We're not going in, saying, 'Let's see what happens,' " GCU graduate guard Brian Moore Jr. said. "We're going in there like, 'We're one of the best teams and we can come out on top.' We've got to leave it all out there with no regrets.
"We've had ups, downs, roller coasters, flips, injuries and all types of stuff. It would mean that much more that we went through all of that and still had a chance to come out on top."
The part of GCU that stays up to make it an annual March Madness threat is its defense. This team's defense gives the Lopes the same chance of dancing deeper into March.
In head coach Bryce Drew's six seasons at the helm, GCU ranks fifth nationally for opponent field goal percentage (40.2%) behind Houston, Tennessee, UC Irvine and fellow Mountain West program San Diego State.
With a team that only returned two rotation players from last season, that identity took time to take hold but now ranks 18th for defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com.
After the first five games of the season, GCU opponents have shot 40.6%. In the past 15 games, the Lopes have the lowest opponent field goal percentage in the conference and 15th-lowest nationally at 39.8%.
"The guys have worked really hard," Drew said. "Defense is a hard thing to buy into. Our scheme is different than the schemes that a lot of these players have played coming in. I definitely think that it took a while to just react on instincts in the game."
For Drew and everyone on the roster, except for UNLV transfer Jaden Henley, the Lopes' first Mountain West season was a new phenomenon of physicality and conference cannibalism.
The depth of the conference shows in No. 6 seed Boise State and No. 7 seed Colorado State being arguably the hottest teams in the conference. Utah State and San Diego State are the tournament bracket's top seeds, but GCU fared the best of any MW team against them at 3-1 (sweeping San Diego State and splitting with Utah State).
"The style of play is the same as it was last year – fast, competitive, physical," said Henley, who was named to the All-Mountain West first team. "At the tournament, it gets 10 times better. There's a lot at stake. Everybody's basically 0-0, and everybody wants to make the tournament, so you have to go out there and compete with everything you've got."
With the need to win the Mountain West Championship to punch a Big Dance ticket, GCU does not need added motivation for Thursday's quarterfinal. But the Nevada matchup provides it anyway.
The Lopes felt like they gave away a win Jan. 28 at Nevada, where they led by nine points with 4:46 to go and six points with 1:03 to go. GCU missed four free throws down the stretch and fouled on a game-ending 3-point shot with a three-point lead, forcing overtime that the Wolf Pack won with attrition getting to GCU because Moore and junior guard Caleb Shaw were out injured.
"I didn't even play that game, and I cried after the game," Moore said. "I was so emotional and upset because of how hard we fought. To lose the way we lost, I know it's going to bring some fire out of the guys. I've got my guys back. I'm going to be ready."
Nevada won despite shooting 32.8%, its second-worst clip of the season, and the Wolf Pack only got 24 minutes from All-Mountain West second-teamer Elijah Price before he fouled out.
GCU's retribution chance was left for Thursday because Nevada was the only Mountain West team to not visit GCU this season.
"Sometimes, you don't really know each other until you go through some adversity," Drew said. "I think the adversity has made us closer and made us stronger. We're really pleased with how we finished the regular season and now we hope our best basketball is ahead of us."
Nevada leads the conference for fewest turnovers per game (9.8) and most free throw points per game (19.4), the latter of which ranks ninth nationally. The Wolf Pack has the conference's second-best 3-point percentage at 36.9% but is discerning about firing 3s with a conference-low 18.5 attempted 3s per game.
With more than two-thirds of Nevada's shots coming inside the arc, the Wolf Pack does not get to the rim often for the 37th-lowest 2-point shooting percentage (47.1%) in the nation.
Price, a 6-foot-9, 215-pound sophomore, averages 13.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game while Nevada is led in scoring by Corey Camper Jr., a 6-5 graduate guard who averages 17.1 points with 41.5% 3-point shooting.
GCU counters with a veteran-laden lineup that recently returned Shaw after losing graduate power forward Wilhelm Breidenbach to injury. Shaw, a former starter, had missed 11 games for an ankle injury before playing 16 minutes in Saturday's win against Fresno State.
Shaw, a 6-foot-6 guard, gives the Lopes another 3-point threat in a surging area of their offense. GCU was at the bottom of the Mountain West for 3-point shooting most of the season, but the Lopes have been the conference's third-best 3-point shooting team since Feb. 17 with a 38% clip over those six games.
Shaw's return, junior guard Dusty Stromer's career-high scoring Saturday and two consecutive career-high scoring games by Evans have fortified the bench. Amid the backcourt injuries, Williams stepped up into an All-Mountain West third-teamer with 15.2 points per game in MW play while Demirel's consistent improvement rounded out a starting lineup featuring the 277 combined career starts of Henley, Moore and Owusu-Anane.
"We feel like we've grown from who we were at the beginning of the season until now," Owusu-Anane said. "With the tournament, we understand this is the biggest opportunity. It's March. We understand what GCU stands for, especially when it comes to March. We're just excited for the opportunity to go out and try to represent our school in the right way and get it done. We feel like we have a good opportunity to make some noise."
The purple throng of GCU supporters shifts to the purple court of the Mountain West Championship at Thomas & Mack Center, where the Lopes are three wins in three days away from punching their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament trip.
The goal is as tangible as it proved to be with the regular-season title chase, which GCU came excruciatingly close to pulling off. Had GCU held a late lead at Utah State on Feb. 28, the Lopes (20-11) could have been co-champions and the No. 1 tournament seed. Instead, GCU tied for third place, resulting in a No. 4 seed in a conference of seven 20-win teams.The Lopes' path begins with a 2:30 p.m. Thursday quarterfinal against Nevada (21-11) on CBS Sports Network. The Wolf Pack, the tournament's No. 5 seed, routed 12th-seeded Air Force 80-45 on Wednesday while GCU practiced next door on its bye day.
"We're not going in, saying, 'Let's see what happens,' " GCU graduate guard Brian Moore Jr. said. "We're going in there like, 'We're one of the best teams and we can come out on top.' We've got to leave it all out there with no regrets.
"We've had ups, downs, roller coasters, flips, injuries and all types of stuff. It would mean that much more that we went through all of that and still had a chance to come out on top."
The part of GCU that stays up to make it an annual March Madness threat is its defense. This team's defense gives the Lopes the same chance of dancing deeper into March.
In head coach Bryce Drew's six seasons at the helm, GCU ranks fifth nationally for opponent field goal percentage (40.2%) behind Houston, Tennessee, UC Irvine and fellow Mountain West program San Diego State.
With a team that only returned two rotation players from last season, that identity took time to take hold but now ranks 18th for defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com.
After the first five games of the season, GCU opponents have shot 40.6%. In the past 15 games, the Lopes have the lowest opponent field goal percentage in the conference and 15th-lowest nationally at 39.8%.
"The guys have worked really hard," Drew said. "Defense is a hard thing to buy into. Our scheme is different than the schemes that a lot of these players have played coming in. I definitely think that it took a while to just react on instincts in the game."For Drew and everyone on the roster, except for UNLV transfer Jaden Henley, the Lopes' first Mountain West season was a new phenomenon of physicality and conference cannibalism.
The depth of the conference shows in No. 6 seed Boise State and No. 7 seed Colorado State being arguably the hottest teams in the conference. Utah State and San Diego State are the tournament bracket's top seeds, but GCU fared the best of any MW team against them at 3-1 (sweeping San Diego State and splitting with Utah State).
"The style of play is the same as it was last year – fast, competitive, physical," said Henley, who was named to the All-Mountain West first team. "At the tournament, it gets 10 times better. There's a lot at stake. Everybody's basically 0-0, and everybody wants to make the tournament, so you have to go out there and compete with everything you've got."
With the need to win the Mountain West Championship to punch a Big Dance ticket, GCU does not need added motivation for Thursday's quarterfinal. But the Nevada matchup provides it anyway.
The Lopes felt like they gave away a win Jan. 28 at Nevada, where they led by nine points with 4:46 to go and six points with 1:03 to go. GCU missed four free throws down the stretch and fouled on a game-ending 3-point shot with a three-point lead, forcing overtime that the Wolf Pack won with attrition getting to GCU because Moore and junior guard Caleb Shaw were out injured."I didn't even play that game, and I cried after the game," Moore said. "I was so emotional and upset because of how hard we fought. To lose the way we lost, I know it's going to bring some fire out of the guys. I've got my guys back. I'm going to be ready."
Nevada won despite shooting 32.8%, its second-worst clip of the season, and the Wolf Pack only got 24 minutes from All-Mountain West second-teamer Elijah Price before he fouled out.
GCU's retribution chance was left for Thursday because Nevada was the only Mountain West team to not visit GCU this season.
"Sometimes, you don't really know each other until you go through some adversity," Drew said. "I think the adversity has made us closer and made us stronger. We're really pleased with how we finished the regular season and now we hope our best basketball is ahead of us."
Nevada leads the conference for fewest turnovers per game (9.8) and most free throw points per game (19.4), the latter of which ranks ninth nationally. The Wolf Pack has the conference's second-best 3-point percentage at 36.9% but is discerning about firing 3s with a conference-low 18.5 attempted 3s per game.
With more than two-thirds of Nevada's shots coming inside the arc, the Wolf Pack does not get to the rim often for the 37th-lowest 2-point shooting percentage (47.1%) in the nation.
Price, a 6-foot-9, 215-pound sophomore, averages 13.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game while Nevada is led in scoring by Corey Camper Jr., a 6-5 graduate guard who averages 17.1 points with 41.5% 3-point shooting.
GCU counters with a veteran-laden lineup that recently returned Shaw after losing graduate power forward Wilhelm Breidenbach to injury. Shaw, a former starter, had missed 11 games for an ankle injury before playing 16 minutes in Saturday's win against Fresno State.Shaw, a 6-foot-6 guard, gives the Lopes another 3-point threat in a surging area of their offense. GCU was at the bottom of the Mountain West for 3-point shooting most of the season, but the Lopes have been the conference's third-best 3-point shooting team since Feb. 17 with a 38% clip over those six games.
Shaw's return, junior guard Dusty Stromer's career-high scoring Saturday and two consecutive career-high scoring games by Evans have fortified the bench. Amid the backcourt injuries, Williams stepped up into an All-Mountain West third-teamer with 15.2 points per game in MW play while Demirel's consistent improvement rounded out a starting lineup featuring the 277 combined career starts of Henley, Moore and Owusu-Anane.
"We feel like we've grown from who we were at the beginning of the season until now," Owusu-Anane said. "With the tournament, we understand this is the biggest opportunity. It's March. We understand what GCU stands for, especially when it comes to March. We're just excited for the opportunity to go out and try to represent our school in the right way and get it done. We feel like we have a good opportunity to make some noise."
Lope tracks
- GCU leads the Mountain West in rebounds per game (36.5) and fewest opponent points per game (68.2)
- The only other players in the nation who meet Henley's averages of 17.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.5 steals are Cameron Boozer of Duke, Dailyn Swain of Texas and Prophet Johnson of Sacramento State.
- Henley's scoring average ranks third in the Mountain West, with Owusu-Anane's rebounding average of 8.5 ranking fourth. Lopes freshman 7-footers Dennis Evans (1.3) and Efe Demirel (1.1) rank third and fifth, respectively, for blocked shots per game.
- With 547 points this season, Henley is 15 points away from tying Josh Braun for fourth place on the GCU Division I-era's single-season scoring list.
- With 263 rebounds this season, Owusu-Anane is 11 rebounds away from tying Gabe McGlothan for fourth place on the GCU D-I era's single-season rebounding list.
- GCU is 18-0 in games that it led at halftime this season.
- The Lopes are 10-0 this season when shooting better than 35% from 3-point range.
- GCU is 12-1 in conference tournament games under Drew.
- The Lopes have the nation's 13th-lowest opponent offensive rebound percentage (25.3%).
- Drew (1994) and Nevada head coach Steve Alford (1983) each were named Mr. Basketball in Indiana to cap their Indiana high school careers.
- Alford has been a college head coach for 35 years, including seven at Nevada, with a career record of 722-384.
- The CBS Sports Network announcers will be John Sadak (play by play), Dan Dickau (analysis) and Evan Washburn (sideline).
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