Men's Basketball | 12/28/2014 9:56:00 PM
Box Score PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Grand Canyon University built a 17-point lead late in the second half Sunday evening and then held off a late ACU offensive barrage as the Antelopes snapped the Wildcats' two-game winning streak with an 83-81 win over ACU in non-conference men's basketball action at GCU Arena.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 6-7 on the season, while the Antelopes improve to 8-7 on the year. The Wildcats will return to action Saturday (Jan. 3) when they host Central Arkansas in a Southland Conference doubleheader at Moody Coliseum. The women's game will tip off at 2 p.m. with the men's game following at 4 p.m.
The Wildcats led 34-33 at the break behind 17 first-half points from
Harrison Hawkins and were still withing one point with 11:33 left after a 3-pointer from
Austin Cooke cut Grand Canyon's lead to 53-52.
The Antelopes, however, went on a 9-0 run over the next 1:21 to take their first double-digit lead of the night (62-52) with the run ending with a pair of DeWayne Russell free throws with 9:12 left in the game. Grand Canyon would eventually push its lead to as many as 17 points, the last time coming with 3:08 left on a layup by Joshua Braun, pushing the Antelopes ahead 78-61.
But the Wildcats wouldn't die as they scored on three GCU turnovers in the final two minutes to cut into the lead. Hawkins hit a pair of free throws with 2:52 left to make it a 15-point game, and then after a Russell free throw,
Parker Wentz hit a 3-pointer to make it a 13-point game (79-66) with 2:42 to play.
That's when GCU began turning the ball over and ACU started creeping closer. With the deficit down to 12 (80-68) with two minutes left after a
LaDarrien Williams jumper, Daniel Alexander turned it over and
Christian Albright converted a three-point play with 1:14 to play to make it an 80-71 contest.
After another GCU turnover, Williams hit a layup to make it 80-73 with 47 seconds to play, and the Wildcats were still very much alive. Another turnover by Sam Daly led to a quick 3-pointer from Williams with 33 seconds left and a GCU timeout. Braun hit the second of two free throws with 22 seconds left to make it 81-76, but Albright scored on a layup with 10 seconds left to cut the GCU lead to 81-78.
But Daly hit a couple of free throws with nine seconds left to make it 83-78 before Cooke nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cut the final deficit to 83-81.
Both teams shot the lights out in the game with the Wildcats hitting 31 of 59 shots (52.5 percent) and the Antelopes hitting 61.7 percent (29 of 47). ACU was 9 of 22 from 3-point range (40.9 percent), including 7 of 15 in the second half (46.7 percent). The Antelopes, however, connected on 21 of 35 free throws, while ACU hit on 10 of their 16 attempts.
Hawkins led the Wildcats with 26 points, while Williams had 15 off the bench. Cooke and Albright each had 11 for the Wildcats.
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