The Lopes had made 8 of 41 shots at that stage for a scenario that almost always spells doom. But even with a record-breaking shooting victory being followed by a dismal shooting loss, the Lopes will look back at Monday’s 68-61 loss to undefeated Wyoming with regret about how it slipped away at GCU Arena.
The Lopes scored 41 points in a 15-minute stretch of the second half to retake a lead for the seventh time, as good of a sign of their scrappiness as was their 22-7 advantage in offensive rebounds. But on a 29% shooting night without illness-stricken graduate guard Holland Woods II, the Lopes could not sustain the exchange of baskets down the stretch.
Wyoming (4-0) closed out a win with an 8-0 run, shutting out GCU on the last four possessions to back up how the Cowboys entered the game with the No. 2 opponent field goal percentage (31%) in the nation.
“Sometimes, you feel like balls and bounces aren’t going your way,” Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. “It seemed like we didn’t get a ball or a bounce until maybe the second half. Usually in games like that, you don’t have a chance to win. Credit to our guys. I thought they really fought. Twenty-two offensive rebounds is a sign of how hard they were playing. By them playing that hard, it at least gave us a chance in the last two minutes to win.”
GCU kept Wyoming 6-foot-9, 252-pound power forward Graham Ike to 13 points, 10 below his average, but the Cowboys relied on 6-foot-7 guard Hunter Maldonado to play all but three minutes with good reason. He delivered 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists while defending Lopes junior guard Jovan Blacksher Jr.
Without Woods to share playmaking duties, Blacksher reverted to creating shots for himself and missed 12 of his first 14 tries. He flipped into attack mode as GCU mounted its comeback and scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half.
Blacksher scored or assisted on eight consecutive points to pull the Lopes within three at 41-38. GCU junior power forward McGlothan scored 10 consecutive points on his 17-point, 12-rebound night to give the Lopes their first second-half lead at 45-44, when Blacksher set up one of McGlothan’s three 3-pointers.
“Gabe’s been terrific for us,” Drew said. “Ever since that first game of the year, he’s been really good. We need his scoring. For our team to be really good, we need another player to step up and really help him out on the inside. We’ve had the three scorers with Holland, Jovan and Gabe. You take Holland out tonight and you look at the stat sheet and watch the game, there was a gleaming hole that we needed someone to step up and be able to score some points for us and move the ball.”
Blacksher did not make a turnover in 38 minutes and took 24 shots, as Drew went to a tighter rotation that required more time from freshman guard Jalen Blackmon and left out junior power forward Aidan Igiehon.
“It (Woods’ absence) puts a lot more pressure on Jovan to handle,” Drew said. “He doesn’t get set up for the easy baskets that he gets when Holland is on the court to help him. There’s a big difference when your role changes. That takes some time to get used to. It was a great experience for Chance (McMillian) and Jalen to get a taste of a high-competitive game and what they need to do to keep improving to help us win these type of games.”
Wyoming established its style in the first half, playing physically with only three fouls. GCU withstood and led 13-0 after more than 12 minutes of the slugfest. But the offensive vanished for more than four minutes, allowing a 14-0 Wyoming run. Momentum nearly shifted with the Lopes defense locking down the Cowboys for five minutes, but a last-second slam sent Wyoming to halftime with a 26-18 lead.
The Lopes fell to their largest hole at 31-18 after the first two second-half possessions and remained down by 12 with 16 minutes remaining before the offense kicked in as McMillian set up a 3-pointer from senior Taeshon Cherryand a slam by senior power forward Dima Zdor, who fouled out in 10 minutes.
“The one thing is we weren’t hitting shots, but at least we know that we all have heart to fight back,” GCU senior small forward Sean Miller-Moore said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re hitting shots or not. We all showed that we’re tough and we can battle.
“We have to figure out other ways to win. We can’t control when shots aren’t going our way, but what we can control is our toughness, crashing the glass, guarding, talking on the bench, energy, anything.”
GCU never could capture a two-possession lead, even after consecutive Blacksher 3-pointers, because Wyoming answered most of the Lopes’ second-half buckets with immediate scores. In crunch time, the Lopes missed three of six free throws with chances to stretch the lead and gave up a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:15 remaining.
GCU came up empty on two chances to tie before allowing Wyoming to score on its final three possessions of the game.
“It was our first time playing against a team of that level this season, so I think it was a good challenge,” said GCU junior power forward Yvan Ouedraogo, who grabbed nine rebounds. “Really physical. In the second half, we came back much better and put ourselves in a position to win. But at the end of the game, they executed and we didn’t.”
Press Recap courtesy of GCU Athletics – Paul Coro
