Kansas City
Grand Canyon
Lopes Hot-Shooting Too Much for Roos on the Road
2/18/2016 10:59:00 PM | Men's Basketball
(Phoenix, Ariz.) - UMKC ran into a tough Grand Canyon squad on Thursday night that hit 10-of-20 from three-point range, and pulled away in the second half for a 78-66 victory over the Roos.
“The threes were certainly the difference in the game,” Richardson said. “I thought we were getting shots that we wanted, but we missed too many point-blank layups in the first half. I thought we were trying to survive the atmosphere, while they were thriving.”
The early part of the contest was tight, with GCU (23-4, 9-2 WAC) holding a 20-19 advantage after the first 11 minutes. The Lopes took over after that though, going on an 11-2 run over the next five minutes, and then closed the half with a 37-25 lead.
UMKC (10-16, 3-8 WAC) was paced by Shayok Shayok with nine points in the period, but as a team the Roos only shot 35 percent. The Lopes hit for 48 percent, including 5-of-9 from three point range. Joshua Braun led GCU with 12 points, while Grandy Glaze had 10 boards.
The second stanza saw Grand Canyon turn a nine point lead into an 18-point advantage in the first four minutes. The lead grew to as many as 24 points with 9:48 to play. UMKC was only able to get it down to the final margin after scoring the game's final 10 points. The Roos also played the second half without Shayok, as well as Kyle Steward who only played two minutes in the final stanza, due to injury.
The Lopes had a 40-25 advantage on the glass, including 15 offensive rebounds. They out-scored UMKC 18-9 in second-chance points. The Roos were better in the paint, out-scoring GCU 30-24, as well as a 15-4 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Roos shot 50 percent in the second half, scoring 41 points, but GCU also scored 41 in the period.
Martez Harrison finished with 18 points to lead the Roos, while LaVell Boyd tallied 13 points. Darnell Tillman pulled down a team-best seven boards and two blocks. Braun led the Lopes with 26 points, including four threes. For the season he averaged 28.5 points against UMKC.
The Roos will look to salvage the road swing on Saturday when it heads to Utah Valley for an 8 p.m. CT tipoff. The game will be locally televised on KSMO in Kansas City and on ESPN3.
