(Las Vegas, NV) After nine weeks of WAC action and 61 conference games, Grand Canyon’s WAC Tournament seed relies on one night and two games.
If the Lopes win on Senior Night against Dixie State and New Mexico State defeats Utah Valley at home Saturday night, GCU would rise to at least the No. 4 seed (with a slight chance at No. 3) and receive a bye into the WAC Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
Even though GCU (21-7, 12-5 WAC) is only a game out of the conference’s three-way tie for first place, a Lopes loss would send them to an opening WAC Tournament game on Wednesday and a need to win four games in four nights to defend their tournament title.
Take away the tournament scenarios and GCU does not lack for motivation – revenge for its regretful loss at Dixie State, completing a 15-2 home season and sending out Raef Gerdes, Sean Miller-Moore and Holland Woods II as winners on their Senior Night.
“We know what we did,” Woods said. “We know we dropped a few early on that we should have had, but people always say you want to play your best basketball in March. That’s what we’re trying to do, build our momentum going into the tournament.”
GCU is trending that way with three consecutive double-digit wins in which opponents have shot 37.3% and the Lopes offense went from shooting 50% from 3-point range in consecutive games for the first time to committing a season-low six turnovers in Thursday night’s win against Utah Valley.
But a roll of great basketball did not carry into the last GCU meeting with Dixie State. The Lopes followed a 52-point second half and win at Utah Valley with a loss two nights later for Dixie State’s best win of its two-year Division I era.
GCU also is in the odd position of pulling for New Mexico State (23-6, 13-4 WAC) to snap a two-game skid Saturday night against Utah Valley (19-10, 10-7 WAC), which slipped to 6-8 on the road this season with Thursday’s loss at GCU.
“We’ve gone to the motto of control what we can control and let’s try to keep playing good basketball,” Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. “I’m really pleased that this is three in a row and hopefully we can make it four in a row on Saturday.”
Dixie State (13-17, 6-11 WAC) beat GCU 61-60 on Feb. 12 despite only shooting 38.3% because the Lopes shot worse – 32.9%. GCU still took a final-minute lead, but Trailblazers power forward and leading scorer Hunter Schofield converted an and-one post-up with 17.6 seconds for what proved to be the game-winner.
The Lopes were denied a four-game winning streak by Dixie State once but get another chance at a four-game streak heading into the WAC Tournament.
“It would be tremendous,” Drew said. “You take that (0-3 road) stretch out and we’ve been really solid and consistent all year.”
Press Release courtesy of Grand Canyon University Athletics – Paul Coro
Click on Logo
