(Phoenix, AZ) In a rare intercity matchup at the smaller university’s house, Arizona State traveled a half hour west to the normally raucous Grand Canyon Arena. With Covid restrictions in place, there was a very limited student section and cheer squad.
In their only other meeting against the Sun Devis in January of 1980, the Lopes lost 80-68.
The game started back ad forth until about the 5:30 mark where GCU strung some baskets together and tool a 23-16 lead and a Bobby Hurley time out.
Devil’s Remy Martin broke the drought with a sixteen foot fall away from the left elbow to bring ASU back within four 24-20.
Arizona State tied it at 24-24 with just overt two minutes left in the half.
The half ended with a lackadaisical Martin getting the ball stolen from him in the back court and an easy layup by Jovan Blacksher Jr. to give the Lopes a 30-29 halftime edge.
Neither team had shot exceptionally well with both going in the 38% range (Devils 10-26 38.5% and GCU 8-21 38.1%).
Each had but one lone basket beyond the arc and the Lopes had a slight edge on the glass 18-15.
ASU didn’t play with much fire in the first twenty minutes. Alternatively the Antelopes were glad to have big brother from the PAC-12 at home.
Hurley must have gotten the Sun Devils attention at halftime because they came out with double the energy they expended in the first half. Still, GCU went stride for stride with them and still led 34-33 with 17:18 to go.
The Devils were finding out as so many WAC teams already know, this place ROCKS with the Havocs Student Section and even with few fans in attendance, GCU is much a more difficult place to play at least this year than Desert Financial Arena in Tempe.
The Devils out of the timeout went up by three, but a quick 4-0 run by GCU got the Lopes back in front 43-41 and kept that lead until Holland Woods hit a three pointer from the right wing at the 13:00 mark to give the Devils back the lead 44-43.
Sparky started to open up the court by shooting three’s at the midway point of the second half, but still they couldn’t shake the Lopes.
Martin found his touch from the arc and the Devils had their biggest lead 56-48 with 9:18 to go in the game.
Now it was GCU’s turn to play catch up as both teams traded baskets for the nest three minutes and at the media time out the Sun Devils had a 60-56 lead ad 7:03 to go.
Grand Canyon got sloppy with the rock tuning the ball overt to the Devils and they took full advantage of it to ge the lead back to 64-58 with 4:05 left.
A quick spurt by the Lopes cut the lead to a single basket 64-62, but once again Martin scored to stop the bleeding.
Down the stretch it was Martin for the Devils and Blacksher Jr for GCU trading buckets
A key three by Alessandro Lever put the Antelopes up 70-68 with just 23.7 left and an ASU timeout.
With Coach Bryce Drew calling a final timeout, the plan was to drive the ball to the hoop, but ASU’s Martin cut off any angle the Lopes tried and a desperation jumper rolled harmlessly off the rim.
Without Martin’s 31 points, #23 ASU loses this game. Only one other player scored in double figures Caleb Christopher chipped with 11 points.
Blacksher Jr led the Lopes with 21 points, Lever had 18 points and senior center Asbjorn Midtgaard added 14 points as Grand Canyon had a much more balanced attack.
This was the Antelopes first loss, but came within an eyelash of beating nationally ranked ASU. The Devils knew it had escaped a dog fight 70-71.
