Bench boosts GCU past Jacksonville
It didn't take long for coach Dan Majerle to turn to his bench.
With the game tied at 9 in the first five minutes Monday night, point guard Damari Milstead entered. A moment later, guard Tim Finke and forwards Roberts Blumbergs and Matt Jackson came in.
About 10 minutes later, Grand Canyon had a 16-point lead and all was well as the Antelopes cruised to a 76-59 victory over Jacksonville before 6,572 at GCU Arena.
Milstead had seven points, Blumbergs nailed two 3-pointers in a row and had eight straight GCU points during that stretch, Finke scored on a dunk and Jackson had six rebounds in the half. Finke had eight rebounds and seven points for the game.
It shows the flexibility Majerle has with a deeper bench this year.
But GCU couldn't sustain that in the second half when shots were missing and Jacksonville cut a 25-point deficit to 11 with 4:51 left.
Milstead lost his starting job to graduate transfer Trey Drechsel after the exhibition game. But with Drechsel struggling to start Monday's game, Milstead came in and had his best stretch of the season.
"I had a couple of tough games but you just have to get better," said Milstead, who also assisted on a dunk by his former high school teammate, Oscar Frayer, in the first half. "I brought energy with the defense. I wanted to bring a spark. I wanted to get to the basket and make plays."
GCU's size ended up being the difference.
The Antelopes (2-1) had 52 rebounds (21 on offense) to the Dolphins' 25. Jacksonville's biggest player, David Bell, played only 13 minutes because of foul trouble.
GCU shot 34 percent in the second half after shooting 48.5 percent in the first half. But the Antelopes made 11 of 14 free throws in the second half.
"That second group gave a boost," Majerle said. "I probably should have brought them in a little sooner in the second half. But that first group has to learn to play, too. Unless I decided to play 10 guys 20 minutes ... The starting group has got to be the starting group. Sometimes they have to push through. I can't always yank them when things aren't going right, especially early in the season."
But when the second group was on the floor in the second half, the smaller Dolphins made a surge with pressure on the ball, double-teaming at times, and causing turnovers.
GCU had 15 turnovers after turning it over 13 times on Saturday in a rout of Delaware.
Sophomore forward Alessandro Lever, using his size advantage inside, led GCU with 15 points. But Majerle hasn't been completely impressed by the Preseason WAC Player of the Year in the first three games.
"Aly is the same as everybody else," Majerle said. "He's missing layups. He's not securing basketball and rebounding. I told him, this is a tough year for him. It's not going to be, 'Who's this kid?' They know. Every time he's down there, they're slapping the ball. He's got to fight through it.
"I'm on him harder than anybody. I told him, 'If I can't yell at my best player, who am I yelling at?' So he's got to get better. Right now, to be honest with you, he's not very good. He's not finishing around the basket. He's getting the ball slapped out of his hands. He's just not very strong. That's one thing he really has to work on. He'll do it. He's hard worker. But it's my job to be hard."