Lopes advance to WAC semifinal

Wednesday, March 7

Las Vegas, Nev.

1 P.M.

Grand Canyon

16-13, 9-5WAC

Utah Valley

11-19, 5-9WAC

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Utah Valley	16	6	13	21	56
Grand Canyon	23	8	17	24	72

Photo by: Travis Neely

3/7/2018 4:57:00 PM | Women's Basketball, Paul Coro

Box Score

GCU plays to its best qualities in 1st round

By: <a href="http://gculopes.com/index.aspx?path=coro">Paul Coro</a>

LAS VEGAS – The Grand Canyon women's basketball team summed everything good about its season at the most critical time Wednesday.

In the program's Western Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament debut, the seniors stepped up. The offense was efficient. The defense was stingy. The Lopes battled on the boards. And GCU won.

The Lopes captured their first Division I postseason victory in convincing fashion, never trailing in a 72-56 first-round triumph against Utah Valley at Orleans Arena. The third-seeded Lopes (16-13) advance to play second-seeded CSU Bakersfield (17-12) at 1 p.m. Phoenix time Friday, just six days after the Lopes won in double overtime at Bakersfield.

Saving their best offense for the right time, the Lopes shot better than 50 percent from the field in consecutive games for the first time this season and denied the Wolverines a field goal for a first-half stretch of 8 minutes and 15 seconds to establish control. UVU shot 33.9 percent, the fifth-lowest opponent clip against the Lopes this season.

GCU senior guard Brie Mobley led in points (19) and rebounds (nine), as she has done all season, and senior teammate Jessica Gajewski was the scoring co-star like usual. Gajewski scored 17 points, giving her a 21.7 average against UVU in three meetings this season.

Senior point guard August Touchard led the Lopes offense's attack against UVU's zone defense by adding nine points, seven rebounds and four assists.

"They (the seniors) have meant everything to this team," GCU head coach Nicole Powell said. "They're the heart and soul, including Jordan Jackson. Her minutes were really valuable tonight. They've led our team, not just in statistics and things that show up on the stat sheet, but every day in practice. These are our leaders. They've taken the freshmen under their wings. They've tried to set the tone. They've bought into us as a staff and allowed us to coach them. I'm really grateful for that."

The Lopes have won six of their past eight games with increasing contributions from the supporting cast. Sophomore forward Vanessa Murphy's interior defense was key early in the game. When Utah Valley tightened GCU's lead to six in the third quarter, junior center ShaRon Miller scored six consecutive Lopes points on post-ups to return the lead to double digits for good.

Lopes freshman forward Myra Williams set a season scoring high (10) with five-for-five shooting and matched her season rebounding high (seven).

"It's huge to have multiple people contributing," Powell said. "You could look at our stat sheet and see who's been carrying us over the season. But here in March, playing teams a third time. In the postseason, you've got to have everybody contributing. You can't just rely on three players or two scorers."

Touchard and Gajewski are fifth-year seniors who came to GCU not knowing they would be able to play in the Lopes' first year of Division I postseason eligibility, which followed a four-year Division I transition period. The emotions showed when Touchard made her first two 3-pointers of the first quarter and Gajewski stretched the lead to 20 points in the fourth quarter when she sank her third 3-pointer of the game.

"Starting back to freshman year, this has been the goal I've been working for every year that I've been at GCU so it was definitely a very special feeling to get this first W," Touchard said. "We're playing for each other but we're also playing for the whole GCU community so it gives it a little extra touch on it."

Mobley, an All-WAC first-team honoree, helped close out UVU with five-of-six shooting in the fourth quarter. The Lopes finished with 51.7 percent shooting after shooting 51.9 percent at Bakersfield on Saturday.

"It's senior year so it's my last opportunity to do what I can," Mobley said. "I'm just excited to get back on the court. It's been a couple years since I've been on this stage but I was ready for it. I was excited to get back."

GCU split the season series with Bakersfield. The Saturday victory was a massive turnaround from a 69-40 loss to Bakersfield at home two weeks earlier. The Roadrunners won 70-59 against Texas-Rio Grande Valley in their first-round game Wednesday at Orleans Arena.

"Postseason, there's just a level of intensity," Powell said. "I think you walk into that building and the lights are brighter, the court is shiny. I'm just glad that we had our band, our cheerleaders, the Havocs dressed up supporting us. That was huge. It kind of felt like a home game."