The Lopes beat UMKC in 77-74 thriller to claim the school’s first-ever conference tournament victory. However, the game was never pretty for the Lopes. GCU came into the contest as 13 point favorites, but the Lopes were never able to capture a lead greater than five.
GCU got off to a disastrous start. The UMKC Roos punched the Lopes in the mouth starting the game on a 20-4 run. The Lopes were frustrated throughout the opening minutes of the first half that resulted in some players taking it out on officials. The Lopes would quickly rebound midway through the first half by going on a 14-2 run sparked by freshmen Alessandro Lever and Damari Milstead. The WAC freshman Player of the Year finished with a team-high 29 points. Lever presented big mismatch problems for Roos, and the Lopes went to him early and often. GCU finished the first half relatively strong making 12-23 of their final shots to make it a 42-40 game at the half. The 82 point total was the largest combined point total featured in a GCU game this season. The Lopes shot 13-36 from the floor in the first half and 3-14 from three.
The second half featured an array of sloppy basketball with continuous offensive rebounds where UMKC and GCU sparingly traded buckets with each other. UMKC and GCU had their largest second-half lead of 5 with UMKC holding the 68-63 lead with five minutes left. During this stretch, the Lopes shutdown defensively and shut UMKC down in their half court set. Alessandro Lever and Oscar Frayer carried the Lopes on the offensive end. Frayer excelled crashing the boards bringing down a game-high 15 rebounds, and complemented it with 13 points. The slow pace of the second half heavily favored the Lopes.
Fueled by the Havocs in the South end zone, the Lopes came surging back. The senior point guard made clutch baskets in the final minutes including the two free throws that gave the Lopes 73-72 lead with 1:41 remaining. The Lopes strong defense that has carried them this whole season allowed them to secure a 77-74 victory.
The Lopes will play in the semifinal game at 6 pm tomorrow at Orleans arena against the winner of Utah Valley and Cal State Bakersfield.
Final Thoughts: This team continues to look lackadaisical on the offensive end. The Lopes only weapon has been to feed freshmen Lever in the post. Lopes won’t be able to rely solely on Lever when playing tougher interior defenses such as Utah Valley and Bakersfield.
Where’s Josh Braun? The preseason WAC player of the year has not had an ideal senior season and has struggled in stretches this year. Simply, GCU is gonna want Josh Braun at his best to win this tournament. In the game against UMKC, Braun took only three shots and went (0-3) from the floor. Braun had less than a 10% usage rate when he was on the floor. That can’t happen. When Dan Majerle was asked by our Jacob Allen if Braun’s low usage was a result from GCU’s game plan to feed Lever in the post; Majerle said; “Josh not getting shots is on Josh Braun. called a play for Josh to have him shoot off the curl and he pumped faked. Josh needs to play better and he needs to shoot when he’s open. Teams are gonna focus on him because if they don’t he will hurt them.” In the end, the Lopes are gonna need Josh to play well in order to win this thing.” Here’s Dan Majerle again challenging his star player. I’m sure Josh heard it in the locker room after the game. Josh Braun has been the face of GCU basketball for the last 4 years, and they need him to play well in an immense way.
The Lopes are two wins away from reaching their first NCAA tournament. They will play tomorrow at 6 pm in the semifinals against either Utah Valley or Cal St Bakersfield where they split season series with each team.