What we learned from Grand Canyon’s strong start in WAC win over Tarleton State

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Grand Canyon made five of its first six shots, including its first three 3-pointers, and completed a home sweep of the Texas schools with an 88-64 WAC basketball victory Saturday night over Tarleton State at Global Credit Union Arena before 7,106 fans.

The Lopes (13-5, 3-1) led by as many as 22 points in the first half, before Tarleton State (8-12, 3-2) closed to within 40-28 at the break. Then, the Lopes shot 59% in the second half, as everybody feasted.

Here are the biggest takeaways, as GCU had six players in double figures in a game for the first time in the Bryce Drew coaching era:

Raising the intensity with press

They’ve been practicing it all year, but in the last two games, the Lopes played full-court press most of the first half and it raised the defensive intensity. After blowing out Abilene Christian utilizing the press, they did it again against Tarleton State (8-12, 3-2) and built a 22-point lead in the first half.

“The players bought into it, I thought, really well,” Drew said. “It gave a lot of energy in the building and got the guys going to get up and down a little bit.”

After losing at Utah Valley in GCU’s only game last week, during two big scoring lulls, the Lopes ran hard practices leading up to Thursday’s game. The message was to play with more passion, more energy, more urgency and with a chip on their shoulders.

“We wanted to try to use (the press) a little bit more,” Drew said. “I thought our guys have done a really good job. We can definitely improve on it. Hopefully, we can show improvement throughout the year in that.”

Sharing the ball

Guard Tyon Grant-Foster led GCU scorers with 17 points coming off the bench for the second game in a row. Forward JaKobe Coles had 16 points, making his first two 3-point tries, and was 8 for 8 from the free-throw line.

Center Duke Brennan and Ray Harrison each had 10 points. Guard Collin Moore had 12 points, six rebounds and two steals. And sophomore guard Makaih Williams, making his second straight start, had 11 points…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/learned-grand-canyons-strong-start-050509212.html

Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic

Publish date : 2025-01-19 05:05:00

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