(Phoenix, AZ) Grand. Canyon had a rare opportunity to host a home game against a Power 5 Conference team at home.
This is how far the Antelope Basketball program has come. Coach Dan. Majerle’s mentality is to take on all comers and not back down.
Enter the Fighting Illini from the University of Illinois from the Big 10 Conference. They’re on a two game swing through the State facing the Lopes on Friday in the second half of the “home and home” series with GCU and a trip down the 10 freeway to Tucson to play the 21st ranked Arizona Wildcats on Sunday.
Grand Canyon kept pace with the taller Illini for the first five minutes going back and forth.
At the 15:03 mark, Illinois opened up a five point lead 13-8 only to have Lopes guard Isaiah Brown hit a three pointer to bring GCU back wishing two at 13-11.
Punch – counterpunch was the script throughout the first twenty minutes with Illinois taking a 41-37 lead into the locker room.
The big stat and it would continue throughout the game was the rebounding edge the Illini held. A 25-15 rebounding edge was enhanced by eleven offensive boards.
Grand Canyon shot the ball well at a 46.7% clip to Illinois 41.7%. The three ball kept the Lopes close at they drained 5-9 in in thee first half.
Fast break and points in the paint were the bread and butter for U of I. Twenty four points down low and ten fast break points were nearly their entire point total in the half.
Kofi Cockburn was a load down low that the Lopes had to contend with, going 5-8 and fourteen points.
This year’s Antelope team relies on speed and long range shooting as they lack the size they’ve had the previous two season.
Alesandro Lever and Brown paced GCU with ten points a piece in the first half. Collectively they were 7-10 from the field and perfect from beyond the arc at 3-3.
In the first 2:05 of the second half, the. Illini went on a 10-2 run to open the lead to 51-39.
Over the next four minutes, Illinois went down low and and reasserted themselves inside 58-44 before Brown hit a trey to stop the bleeding.
With just over ten minutes left, the Illini had their biggest lead of fourteen points, 65-51. Once again the Loped hot a three trying to keep within striking distance.
The next 3:05 had the Antelopes on a 9-3 run to pull within eight at 68-60.
Lorenzo Jenkins hit one of his four three pointers and a now GCU was within seven at 70-63 with 5:35 left to play.
Both teams traded baskets for the next 1:46 but the Antelopes couldn’t. Get closer than six down.
The remainder of the contest Illinois did what Illinois does, use their strength and size to wear down opponents.
Final Score Illinois 83 Grand Canyon 71.
Other than being dominate on the glass with a 52-26 rebounding advantage, which included twenty offensive boards, the Illini went to the foul line thirty times making twenty one. The Lopes went 9-16 from the charity stripe. Rarely does a visiting team go the stripe fourteen more times than the home team.
Dan Majerle’s program is way past “good losses” and yet both the coaching staff and players really believed this was a winnable game.
One of the factors of the game being so close was the raucous student section that GCU has every game. The arena was so loud, “we couldn’t hear during timeouts” saiid Illini Coach Brad Underwood.
Easily the loudest student section in the state’s four universities, Grand Canyon Arena is why most Power 5 programs hesitate to play the Antelopes at home.
Up next for GCU is a trip to the west coast to face a very good San Diego State team at. Viejas Arena on November 13th.
