WBB Recap: Aggies Threaten Comeback But Fall To Grand Canyon

LOGAN – An outstanding shooting night from Grand Canyon created a lopsided accuracy split between the teams and defined the ball game as the Aggies hosted the Antelopes in an 86-66 loss.

GCU set the tone early. Casey Valenti-Paea broke the ice with a three assisted by Chloe Mann, then she assisted Ines Zounia on a layup to take a 5-0 lead. Then, when Rachel Wilson got the Aggies within three at 9-6, the Lopes grabbed seven unanswered points to go up by 10 early.

Utah State went 4-for-17 shooting from the floor and 0-for-6 from deep during the first quarter while Grand Canyon was 7-for-10 shooting and 2-for-4 from three in the same time frame. The Aggies heated up a bit in the second quarter but the Lopes didn’t cool down. Utah State hit 8 of 17 tries and 2 of 4 triples while the Lopes hit 11 of 19 overall and 6 of 11 from distance. Aaliyah Gayles hit a three at the halftime buzzer, but GCU still enjoyed a 16-point lead at the break.

The GCU onslaught slowed, but never reversed as the Lopes won the third and fourth quarters by just two points apiece.

The Aggies put together a run that started with a 22-point GCU lead in the third and ended on an eight-point GCU lead with 6:43 in the fourth, 70-62. Karyn Sanford got the team started with a pair of free throws and a layup for a four-point catalyst and Gayles had 11 points in the stretch to shave 14 points off the Lope advantage. Grand Canyon put a stop to the Aggie run with a 7-0 run and only gave up only two buckets in the final 6:43 of the game.

By the end of the game, GCU had amassed 86 points on 32-of-56 shooting. The Lopes never cooled down from three and ended up 13-of-25 on the game.

Gayles had her best game of the season. She scored a career high and matched her point total from the entire Wyoming series with 24 points, five rebounds, three assists and four steals. She went 10 of 21 from the field, 2 of 7 from deep and hit both free throw tries. She notably had just one turnover, a season low.

Sanford strung together her third consecutive double-digit game with 13 points, two rebounds and a block without committing a foul in her team-high 36 minutes. She went 5 for 11 from the floor, 1 for 3 from beyond the arc, and 2 for 2 from the stripe.

The other three starters combined for just six more points. Elise Livingston had four points, Macie Brown had two, and Sophie Sene was held scoreless. Gayles and Sanford, along with a pair of impressive showings from the freshman class, were the silver linings of the game.

Paloma Muñoz Herreros and Aitana Rosello Lopez came off the bench and added 17 points. Muñoz Herreros had nine points with three rebounds, and Rosello Lopez had eight on an efficient 3-of-6 shooting clip with a rebound and a steal. Wilson contributed off the bench as well and had four points, two rebounds and two steals.

Another silver lining is that the Aggies won the turnover battle, which they did for the third straight game. The Aggies gave up possession 15 times and forced 23 turnovers, but when a team hits 52 percent from deep, there’s not much a defense can do to make up for it. The Aggies also lost the battle on boards 42 to 26, which didn’t help the cause, but the previous point stands: Giving up 13 threes (and hitting only four) was the main culprit.

With the loss, the Aggies dropped their eighth straight and fell to 6-14 (2-9) while GCU jumped to 7-14 (6-5).