The Grand Canyon Antelopes suffered its first loss of the season to the San Diego Toreros, another undefeated team who are off to their best start in five seasons.
It showed on Saturday night as GCU played one of its toughest matchups so far this year.
“They played better than we did,” coach Dan Majerle said. “They played tougher than we did.”
Highlights from Game 5️⃣. #LopesRising pic.twitter.com/t61vV5fIOI
— GCU Men’s Basketball (@GCU_MBB) November 26, 2017
The Lopes, known for their three-point shooting threat, went 1-11 in the second half from beyond the arc.
“I thought for the most part our looks were pretty good,” Majerle said. “Just got to make them. You know, we’ve been making them, tonight was a night that’s when your defense has to get better.”
Good defense leads to good offense and the Lopes failed to get crucial stops down the stretch, leading to a drought on the offensive end for a long period of time.
San Diego shot 49 percent from the field and made some tough shots down the stretch. Olin Carter III made a long three-point shot to extend the lead 61-54 with 4:21 left to go and then an easy layup soon after.
“When it comes down to it, we didn’t play great defense,” Josh Braun said. “They hit some tough shots, but we also gave up some buckets and some open looks that we shouldn’t have given up.”
Braun made a clutch three with under a minute left to go to get within five. He had 20 points on the night but it wasn’t enough for a win.
Josh Braun with the clutch 3. San Diego up 65-60 with under a minute left pic.twitter.com/pf0R0Av9aI
— YurView Arizona (@YurView_AZ) November 26, 2017
Despite the loss, Majerle says there’s a lot of good that can come out of this
“I think this loss is good for us,” Majerle said. “I think our guys had a false sense of that they’re pretty good and right now we’re not very good.”
There’s still a lot of basketball left to be played but the Lopes plan to use this game as fuel for their future matchups.
“You got to let it motivate you,” Braun said. “I think we’re probably going to look at a lot of film and see where we’re weak, see where we struggle, I think that’s one thing about playing a good team is they can expose you where you’re weak and so it’s important to look at the film, make sure that we’re paying close attention to what we can do better, have this tough week of practice coming up and making sure that we can make the adjustments that we need to.”
Grand Canyon looks to protect home court on Saturday night against UC Riverside
Be sure to tune in on your local YurView channel and online at GCU.TV for live game coverage.
