GCU makes history by sweeping NMSU
Grand Canyon has made a statement in Bryce Drew's first season as head coach.
It isn't going to keep getting pushed around by New Mexico State.
For the second night in a row, the Antelopes started slow, picked up steam and stemmed any Aggies attempted rally during a 65-53 victory Saturday night at GCU Arena.
It is the first time in GCU's NCAA Division history that it has swept the season Western Athletic Conference against the 3-3 Aggies, who fell to 0-2 in WAC.
It was the first time New Mexico State, the three-time defending WAC champions, opened 0-2 in WAC play since the 2012-13 season.
"It's still strange playing back-to-back," Drew said.
No matter how strange,
GCU has found ways to make it work for three straight weekends, the last two on the road, to improve to 6-0 in the WAC and remain in first place. They are now 12-3 and have won eight straight games.
"Every game has been an emotional game," Drew said. "I'm really proud of our guys. They really came at us in the second half with a couple of runs. We were able to get defensive stops. And we were able to get rebounds."
On Friday, GCU ended an eightgame losing streak to the Aggies and halted their 34-game conference (including tournament play) win streak. But in the process the the Lopes gave up 17 offensive rebounds and got outrebounded by 11.
This time, GCU (12-3, 6-0) asserted itself back in the paint, limiting the Aggies' touches after misses, with 7-foot
teams
it's working.
Asbjorn Midtgaard not being bullied. He had 14 points and 10 rebounds, his sixth double-double of the season.
Point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr., had 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Alessandro Lever added 12 points and forward Gabe McGlothan had nine points off the bench.
GCU outrebounded the Aggies 34-30. GCU scored the first nine points of the second half and built at 45-28 lead, before the Aggies answered with an 11-0 run to cut it to 45-39. GCU ended up shooting 48% in the game.
The Aggies were content with shooting 3-pointers against the Lopes zone. But GCU switched up with some manto-man and the long and athletic Oscar Frayer showed his quickness and ability to make it tough to score on him.
He had a key block down the stretch to help the Antelopes close.
NMSU made 7 of 31 3s. They shot 36.5% from the field and only got to the free-throw line 10 times.
"I heard a lot about New Mexico State and we knew we had to beat these guys," said Midtgaard, who was playing at Wichita State last season.
Midtgaard knew this was going to the most physical weekend of his GCU career.
But he bounced back Saturday looking much more comfortable in the blocks. He had made 18 shots in a row since last weekend, but still managed to make 7 of 11 shots.
"They beat us really bad on the rebound battle (Friday) and we take pride in rebounding and defending," Midtgaard said. "So we had a huge emphasis today that we had to rebound. We felt that whoever had the most rebounds today would win this game.
"We just put our boxing gloves on and went in there, because we knew that they were going to come in hard and hit us."