UVU men’s basketball can’t slow Grand Canyon
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- UVU freshman Tanner Toolson shoots a shot during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU senior Trevin Dorius shoots a shot during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU junior Drake Allen dives for a loose ball during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU senior Caleb Stone-Carrawell shoots a 3-pointer during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU freshman Tanner Toolson dribbles up the court during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU fans attempt to distract a free-throw shooter during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU junior Drake Allen dribbles up the court during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU defender apply pressure during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU junior Drake Allen goes up for a layup during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU head coach Todd Phillips talks to his team during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU senior center Trevin Dorius attempts to block a shot during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
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- UVU head coach Todd Phillips watches his team during the WAC game against Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024.
The UVU men’s basketball team knew that its second home game in seven WAC games was going to be a monumental challenge as the Wolverines hosted league-leading Grand Canyon at the UCCU Center on Saturday afternoon.
And if squaring off against the long, athletic, deep, talented Lopes team wasn’t difficult enough, UVU had the added challenge of getting to Orem after Grand Canyon did (thanks to the travel challenges involved with returning from Thursday’s road game at Stephen F. Austin).
The visiting Lopes started strong but the Wolverines stayed close through the first half, only trailing 23-21 with 2:51 on the clock. Part of that was due to the fact that Grand Canyon had missed all 11 of its 3-point attempts in the first 17 minutes of play.
But that didn’t last … and when the Lopes flipped the script, it changed the entire game.
Grand Canyon made nine of its next 11 treys and pulled away to defeat UVU, 86-67.
“Their shooting changed the game,” Wolverine head coach Todd Phillips said. “I think it gave them some juice and life as well when they hit those. I know that does for us as well.”
He admitted that some of the Lope shots from downtown were made easier by UVU defensive breakdowns that his team can work on.
“They had I think three of them in transition,” Phillips said. “You’ve got to get back. We’ve been pretty good transition-wise but we didn’t get to the next guy over. Credit to them. When they were open, they buried those things.”
Grand Canyon closed the half by making three of their last five long-distance attempts, although the last miss was a rushed 30-footer right before the buzzer.
The visitors kept the barrage going by knocking down back-to-back bombs to start the second half.
Although the Lopes quickly built a 10-point lead, UVU chipped away and only trailed 48-44 before things fell apart for the Wolverines.
Grand Canyon used four more 3-pointers (the Lopes were 6-for-6 in the second half) to go on a 23-8 run to seize control of the game.
“It was a rough second half and they did they did a heck of a job,” Phillips said. “I liked our game plan, what we planned going in. We did a pretty good job in the first half, although we missed a couple of shots and missed some free throws. But we were right there.”
He noted that his squad had some momentum-killing misses from the foul line that didn’t help. The Wolverines were just 10-of-19 from the charity stripe, while the Lopes finished 23-of-29.
“This team this year has been up and down,” Phillips said. “We’ve shot it great from the foul line and we’ve shot it awful. We’ve kind of struggled in the last two games again from the line. We’ve got to knock those down to keep you in the game.”
While that wasn’t ideal, he was most disappointed in the fact that Grand Canyon was almost able to cruise to victory down the stretch.
“I thought we could have handled that a little bit better,” Phillips said. “We got down 20 at their place and then we had that fight. We made a spurt and came back. It felt like we threw a couple punches and they threw a couple back. We’re in trouble here and it kind of got to 20, then they were kind of in control the last 9 or 10 minutes of the game. We’ve got to figure out how to win and when people hit, you hit back.”
UVU got 15 points from senior Caleb Stone-Carrawell, 14 points from freshman Tanner Toolson and 12 points and nine rebounds from senior Trevin Dorius.
Ray Harrison paced the Lopes with 21 points, while Grand Canyon had three other players in double-figures: Gabe McGlothan (17), Tyon Grant-Foster (14) and Lok Wur (13).
The visitors ended up making 42.9% (27-of-63) of their shots, while the Wolverines made just 37.3% (25-of-67).
UVU (9-13, 4-7) will look to get some momentum as it has two more home games in a row, starting with welcoming Tarleton State to the UCCU Center in Orem on Feb. 8 at 6 p.m.
“It’s going to be really nice to be at home for two more,” Phillips said. “We’re going to come back on Monday and work hard. I think this time this season you ask yourself if you change what you’re doing or do you stay with what you’re doing and see the guys continue to get better? We’ll sit down and have a long hard talk about that with our coaches to figure out what we need to do to help the guys we have on the floor.”
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