Defensive flex rallies GCU to 18-point victory in Vancouver tour opener
By: Paul Coro
WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia – By the time Grand Canyon basketball is on full display with a full roster later this year, the Lopes hardly will resemble the team that played their first game against an opponent Tuesday.
But an 83-65 exhibition victory against Mount Royal, a university team from Calgary, Alberta, provided hints to this team's great expectations and material for Lopes coaches to help get them there.
Efe Demirel
In the first of two exhibition games on this week's Vancouver tour, GCU had one returning rotation player available (sophomore center Efe Demirel) and fell behind by eight points in the second quarter when Mount Royal made five consecutive 3-pointers. It was just what the Lopes needed to feel, turning into constrictors that squeezed Mount Royal's offense to deny a made field goal for 8 1/2 minutes of game action.
A 22-2 GCU run put the Lopes in control, going from a team that survived on backcourt defensive pressure early to one that built a large lead as the big men asserted themselves more. Demirel posted 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots while newcomer power forward Omaha Biliew scored 10 of his 13 points in the second half and shared the team rebounding lead of nine with another new player, Blake Barkley, who played both forward spots and scored 10.
"We definitely looked like it's been the rough summer that it has been from a practice perspective with so many injuries and making practices difficult," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "They fell into a groove and into a rhythm. Our defense got more disciplined in the last 25 minutes.
"I learned a lot. It was nice see us play 5 on 5. It was nice to play continuous minutes."
Dylan Darling
GCU senior point guard Dylan Darling only recently was cleared fully for practices, but he immediately showed his ability as a ball-pressure guard and floor general in Tuesday's game to collect 10 points, five rebounds and four assists in less-than-normal playing time.
The Lopes shot out to a 7-3 lead with Darling sinking a corner 3-pointer and feeding senior Tyler Behrend, who started at power forward alongside Demirel, for an inside score. His hustle sparked GCU's 15-2 close to the first half, when Darling raced 94 feet after he missed a drive and forced a miss at the other end.
Teaming with sophomore guard Micah Tucker for perimeter pressure, Mount Royal was unable to put a shot on the rim for four consecutive possessions.
"Dylan's so competitive, so he wants to be involved in any play whether it's on offense or defense," Drew said. "You just love that competitiveness about him. He's only practiced a handful of days this summer, so it was nice to see him get a rhythm and make some shots. He really didn't look like a player who hadn't practiced much this summer. He looked like he had a good flow with the guys."
Senior guards Makaih Williams and Caleb Shaw, the most experienced players in GCU's system, were out for health reasons, allowing all nine available Lopes to play and score.
Tucker recorded a team-high three steals and added nine points, matching Behrend's total. Junior guard Jaden Zimmerman scored eight to give the Lopes seven players with eight or more.
Jaden Zimmerman
"We just got together," Zimmerman, the Quinnipiac transfer, said of the Lopes beginning summer workouts in June. "We're still learning each other. We're still trying to find our identity. As a group, I thought we played good. The first half was a little slow, but we got it together the second half and showed what we can do a little bit."
Mount Royal only shot 34.3% from the field and 30.0% on 3-pointers for the game but staggered GCU temporarily with the second-quarter streak of five consecutive 3s, three of which came on consecutive possessions for a 37-29 lead.
"Earlier this morning (in team chapel), Coach Shaw (assistant coach Casey Shaw) talked about adversity," Zimmerman said. "That was a prime example. The team hit a couple 3s and we got down eight, but we never held our head down. We just kept playing."
The Lopes guards continually pushed tempo. Despite committing 18 turnovers in the game, GCU had a clean close to the first half with crisp ball sharing to lead 44-39 at halftime on a Demirel putback.
It was the start of a stretch by the 7-foot-1 Turk that had Zimmerman calling him "a beast" and Biliew wanting more.
Omaha Biliew
"To me, he grew today, with just being aggressive," Biliew said. "I want him, personally, to be as dominant as he is, being as big as he is."
With only nine players, Drew played centers (Behrend and Demirel) and point guards (Darling and Tucker) together. Sophomore forward Jack Sawyer, who redshirted last season, scored five early fourth-quarter points as GCU built its largest lead at 78-57 on a Biliew left-handed post-up.
"It was fun getting up and down and going against a different team and not just our own guys," Biliew said. "I just love basketball. This new team, I like the guys on the team. We're just getting better. I love seeing them get better on the court, just hooping.
"I just wanted to set the tone coming into the second half. It was fun. I let loose. Everybody was playing with that same intensity."
GCU shot 47.6% from the field and 30.8% on 3-pointers with Darling and Barkley each making a pair of 3s and Demirel launching a missed 3 after not attempting a 3 last season.
The Lopes allowed 11 offensive rebounds in the first half to a smaller Mount Royal team but shored that area up by only allowing two in the second half and none over the game's final 14 minutes.
"It's fun until the ball goes up, and now you're going through everything in your mind that you have to get better at," Drew said. "But this game is much more beneficial than playing a team that's not competitive. This helps our guys bond a little bit. It helps us being able to coach them, and they also can go through adversity. When they made five in a row and we went down, it was good to see who could respond to get the lead back for us."
GCU will take sightseeing excursions Wednesday before playing another game Thursday night at Trinity Western in Langley, British Columbia, where the Spartans gave Purdue a challenge in a 16-point loss last month.
"We're here to win games, but it's also to find each other and feel each other out and see the best position we can be as a team," Barkley said.
