Aggies’ 31-game WAC winning streak snapped
First-place Grand Canyon foils cold-shooting NMSU
Grand Canyon maintained its first-place hold in the Western Athletic Conference and won its seventh straight game with a 70-62 victory against New Mexico State on Friday night at GCU Arena.
The victory over the Aggies snapped an eight-game losing streak by Lopes in the series. In the process, Grand Canyon (113, 5-0 WAC) held New Mexico State to 31% shooting from the field. GCU was at 53%.
The loss for the Aggies (3-2, 0-1) also ended their 31-game regular-season WAC winning streak.
New Mexico State opened the game with a 13-4 lead, but the Lopes rallied to a 37-30 lead with 12 first-half points from senior power forward Alessandro Lever.
In the second half, GCU took a 42-34 lead on a 3-pointer from senior forward Oscar Frayer but went 5 1/2 minutes without scoring and eventually lost the lead.
With the score 52-52 and about six minutes to play senior guard Mikey Dixon hit a 3-pointer to give GCU a 55-52 lead that it kept for the final six minutes.
The Aggies kept it relatively close with 17 offensive rebounds, a shocking stat against the No. 1 rebound margin team in the nation. New Mexico State also outscored Grand Canyon 25-11 at the free throw line.
Johnny McCants had 13 points to lead New Mexico State.
The teams are scheduled to meet again Saturday night at GCU.
No. 19 ILLINOIS 80, No. 7 IOWA 75: In Champaign, Ill., Ayo Dosunmu scored 25 points, Trent Frazier had 24 as Illinois upset Iowa.
The teams traded leads for most of the game, but Illinois finally took command in the final two minutes and was up by three points when Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon missed a hurried 3 pointer with 11 seconds left.
The Illini’s Kofi Cockburn was immediately fouled and missed his free throw but grabbed the rebound. Cockburn was fouled again with 2 seconds left and sank both shots to seal the win.
Luka Garza and Joe Wieskamp each had 19 points for Iowa (12-4, 6-3 Big Ten). Jacob Grandison had 11 points and 10 rebounds for Illinois (11-5, 7-3).
John Chaney, one of the nation’s leading Black coaches and a commanding figure during a Hall of Fame basketball career at Temple, has died. He was 89.
His death was announced by the university Friday.
Chaney led Temple to 17 NCAA Tournament appearances over 24 seasons, including five NCAA regional finals. Chaney had 741 wins as a college coach. He was twice named national coach of the year.
Women
No. 5 UCLA 60, ARIZONA STATE 57: In Los Angeles, Charisma Osborne scored 27 points and UCLA survived a second-half comeback try to beat Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion.
UCLA (10-2, 8-2 Pac-12) led by 18 points in the second quarter and 33-21 at halftime before Arizona State roared back. ASU is 8-5, 4-5.
No. 6 STANFORD 77, WASHINGTON STATE 49: In Pullman, Wash., Anna Wilson scored only three points in Stanford’s win over Washington State, but coach Tara VanDerveer said she made a huge impact on the game.
Wilson held Pac-12 leading scorer Charlisse Leger-Walker to two points, 17 below her season average.
Ashten Prechtel added 11 points for Stanford (14-2, 11-2 Pac-12).