Grand Canyon men blown out by Maryland in NCAA Tournament's first round
Grand Canyon jumped out to a 7-2 lead over No. 4 Maryland on Friday. Then, everything caved in for the No. 13 Lopes.
Nothing was falling. They couldn't make a stop. And, after finding a slimmer of hope in the first couple of minutes of the second half, getting within 12 points, the season completely crashed.
The Lopes' season ended in an onslaught of Maryland 3s and no answer for the Terps' bigs in an 81-49 NCAA Tournament first-round loss in Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena.
Maryland's 32-point win is the biggest margin of victory in the school's long, rich March Madness history. It was, by far, the worst loss in GCU's five NCAA tournament games, a string that began in 2021, coach Bryce Drew's first year leading the program.
GCU kept to its season-long game plan and took the ball hard to the basket, even if it was going up against the biggest team it had seen.
"As we drove, especially in the first half, I thought we passed the ball well," Drew said. "I would say nearly every one of those looks were wide open. We just didn't make them. Every one we missed, it sucked a little bit of energy out of us.
"You can talk about your defense has to carry you and give you energy. But you've got to make something at that end to help build the energy on the defensive end. I think it was deflating to miss open shot, after open shot. It really hurt us."
GCU shot 29%, while Maryland ended up shooting 51%, after starting the game 2-for11 shooting.
The Lopes knew it would be tough in the paint against Maryland's bigs of 6-foot-10 freshman Derik Queen and 6-9 senior Julian Reese. But they didn't figure to be that dominant. Reese scored Maryland's first six points, before the rest of his teammates had the nerves knocked out of playing in their first March Madness game.
Reese finished with 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting and nine rebounds and two blocks. Queen, who figures to be a top-10 NBA Draft pick, had 12 points and 15 rebounds to go with two blocks.
"Those guys are good players," GCU forward JaKobe Coles said. "We didn't put as much pressure on them of making shots. But give them credit. They used their size well. I thought Reese played really well today. And Queen was playing poised. And the rest of their guys were hitting their 3s. They executed their game plan well."
Point guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie had 16 points, making 2-of-6 3-pointers.
Miguel Shelton made all three of his 3-point tries, as the Terps made 7-of-16 from long distance.
If not for 6-foot-7 graduate guard Tyon Grant-Foster, the Lopes (26-8) would have been down by much more than 14 points at halftime.
The Lopes had 28 first-half points and Grant-Foster had 16 of them, including three 3-pointers, one that ended maybe the worst defensive half this season for GCU.
In the second half, Grant-Foster was held to seven points. He changed shoes at halftime.
"I've been doing that since high school," Grant-Foster said. "I change my shoes at halftime since high school. I knew I had a good first half, but I always just do that. Every time we have played and I didn't change my shoes, we lost. So I had to change them."
Maryland coach Kevin Willard said the emphasis going into the second half was just to put a body on Grant-Foster, who likes to take the ball hard to the basket. After making 4-of-6 shots, 3-of-5 3-pointers and 5-of-8 free throws in the first half, Grant-Foster made just 1-of-7 shots and missed his only 3-point try in the second half.
"We just wanted to be a little more physical with him," Willard said.
Drew will have to hit the portal hard moving forward, losing Grant-Foster, guards Ray Harrison and Collin Moore and forwards Coles and Lok Wur.
The Lopes could be joining the Mountain West Conference as early as next season.
But this was a hard game for this core of players to finish with at GCU. Harrison, who was playing in his third straight NCAA Tournament, made only 3-of-10 shots. Coles, who was coming off the WAC Tournament title as the MVP, had only four points on 2-of-8 shooting.
"Getting into the rhythm in the game, it comes and goes," Harrison said. "Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay in a rhythm."
To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: GCU blown out by Maryland in first round of NCAA Tournament
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