PHOENIX, Ariz. – Stringing together timely baskets and solid defense, the Western New Mexico University men's basketball team was tied at halftime with Grand Canyon University. The second half, though, belonged to the Division I Lopes as they came away with the 74-47 exhibition victory Thursday night.
Right out of the gate, WNMU was ready to go.
Terrez Scott (Santa Clarita, CA/Valencia) and
Brandon Tanter (Long Beach, CA/Los Angeles Prep) hit back-to-back jumpers just over five minutes in to give the Mustangs an 8-4 lead.
The lead would stretch to five a few minutes later when
Marcos Castrillo (San Francisco, CA/Pinole Valley) got loose for a jumper for the 12-7 lead at the 11:22 mark.
GCU would come back with a 13-2 run to take a 20-14 lead, but that didn't faze the Mustangs.
Still trailing by five with just a few minutes to go in the half, WNMU came back with a quick 5-0 run behind a layup from
Steven Loucks (Yuma, AZ/Cibola) and then a three at the buzzer by Tanter to tie the game at 24 at the break.
WNMU was even with GCU in the opening half on points in the paint (10), while leading in points off turnovers (9-6). WNMU shot 44 percent (11-25) from the floor, while holding GCU to a 34.8 percent (8-23) clip.
Castrillo scored the first basket of the second half to push the Mustangs back in front by two. Following a 6-0 run by the Lopes, Scott drilled a three at the 17:40 mark to bring WNMU back to within a point at 30-29.
Just when it looked like the Lopes were ready to run away with it, the Mustangs kept fighting back. After another short GCU run,
Brandon Williams (Long Beach, CA/Los Angeles Prep) connected from three-point range to trim the deficit to two, 34-32, with 16:13 to play.
Williams and Scott would hit a pair of jumpers near the midway point to keep the deficit at nine before GCU would go on a run over the next five minutes to jump the lead to 21.
Castrillo paced the Mustangs with 10 points and nine rebounds. Tanter and Scott added eight apiece, while Williams had seven. Tanter also tallied four steals.
Royce Woolridge led the Lopes and all scorers with 16 points.
GCU held a healthy advantage at the foul line, making 23-of-35 to just a 6-of-14 clip for the Mustangs. The Lopes also made seven three-pointers to three for WNMU and held a slight 22-19 advantage on field goals.
WNMU will close their exhibition portion of the schedule this coming Monday when they will play at New Mexico State beginning at 7:00 p.m.
