WAC Tournament title defense starts with Seattle U - Grand Canyon University Athletics (2024)

LAS VEGAS –Throughout the season, Grand Canyon practice and game huddlesbreak with hands together and one word delivered in unison: "Champions."

The Lopes, the WAC regular-season champions, are two wins away from being the champions they want to be most. Top-seeded GCU starts pursuit of a WAC Tournament championship repeat and its third NCAA tournament berth in four years with a 6 p.m. Friday semifinal against fourth-seeded Seattle U at Orleans Arena.

"We're going to approach it like it's our last game of the season," said Lopes guard Tyon Grant-Foster, who is GCU's first WAC Player of the Year. "We're going to play hard because we know what comes with this. We got the regular-season championship, but this is the one we want. I feel like we're going to play harder than we've played all year."

The Lopes (27-4) probably will need to do so against the Redhawks U (19-13), who reached Friday's semifinal on ESPN+ by thumping California Baptist 81-57 and split the regular-season series with GCU.

On Jan. 20, Seattle U ended GCU's 14-game winning streak with an 86-79 home win when the Lopes missed their final eight shots to lose a seven-point lead despite graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan's 28 points.

Two weeks later, Seattle U rallied from a 14-point deficit at GCU to force overtime, where the Lopes opened with a 10-2 run to win 95-88. GCU junior guard Ray Harrison scored 21 points and delivered a career-high eight assists.

"We know what we need to do," said Harrison, who was last year's WAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player. "These teams are aiming to take us down. We're coming in the door, and we're going to handle it like we should."

The Lopes are 3-0 against the Redhawks at the WAC Tournament, including an 84-79 quarterfinal win last year in which McGlothan scored 35 points.

Seattle U (six) returns twice as many players as GCU (three) who played in last year's tournament meeting. The player of concern is Redhawks fifth-year senior Cameron Tyson, who has averaged 17.0 points over three Seattle U seasons. The All-WAC first-team guard has made the third-most 3-pointers (438) among active Division I players with a career 38% clip from beyond the arc.

Tyson only needed to play 23 minutes in Thursday night's blowout, when he scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half with four 3s. The Redhawks made 12 of 23 from 3-point range and shot 54% from the field. That perimeter firepower has been enhanced by Creighton transfer John Christoflis, a sophom*ore guard who has made 49% of his 3s over February and March.

"We'll have to guard and rebound, No. 1, something we talk about a lot," Seattle U head coach Chris Victor said of facing GCU. "We had two battles with them— two close games— and they're a very talented team, a well-coached team, a team that's playing well on both sides of the ball."

Seattle U's shooting reputation masks how well and physically the Redhawks defend. Seattle U ranks in the national top 50 for points allowed per game (67.0, No. 44) and opponent field goal percentage (41.1%, No. 40).

GCU's last opponent also was California Baptist, but that was Saturday night for a68-47 rout in Riverside, California. The Lopes received two WAC Tournament byes as the regular-season champion and watched Thursday's action from the Orleans Arena seats.

"They've really been a competitive group, and that's something we really enjoy from Day 1 in the summer," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "They compete and want to win. That's the common goal that has kept everybody together. We have a lot of very strong personalities, but they have the common goal of wanting to win and that's really united them."

McGlothan and Blacksher have been parts of GCU's two WAC Tournament championship teams, although Blacksher was out for last year's tourney following knee surgery. Harrison and senior guard Josh Baker return from last year's championship rotation as well with an understanding of thestakes and an appreciation for the overwhelming GCU turnout. Because its first WAC Tournament title was won under COVID-19 crowd restrictions, last year's championship was the first celebrated with Lope Nation, which traveled well to the ensuing NCAA tournament game.

"Being able to have that experience and just knowing how it feels being there, I feel like it automatically will make you crave wanting to be back there again," Harrison said. "It feels like there's almost no other option."

Besides the customary WAC Tournament championship route, the Lopes have another way to secure the conference's NCAA tournament berth. No. 2 seed Tarleton State, which plays No. 3 seed UT Arlington in the late Friday semifinal, is not eligible for the NCAA tournamentbecause it is in the final year of its Division I transition period.

If GCU and Tarleton State win Friday night, the Lopes would be the WAC's automatic qualifier as the regular-season conference champion. If Tarleton State won the WAC Tournament title against either GCU or Seattle U, the Lopes would be the automatic qualifier.

But the WAC Tournament championship was the second of three goals that the team laid out in a campus room before the season began. GCU checked the first box as outright regular-season champions. If the Lopes punch their ticket with the second goal, they could move onto the third goal of winning in the NCAA tournament.

"Our confidence is at an all-time high, just because of the way we've been playing the last three games and the way we've been practicing," Grant-Foster said. "We're getting better.

"It's winning time right now. We know what we need to do to get to our goals."

Lope tracks

• The NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings, used in NCAA tournament seeding, put GCU (No. 55) and Seattle U (No. 119) as the top WAC teams.
• GCU is 6-0 in WAC Tournament games when it is the higher seed.
• The Lopes are the tournament's top seed for the first time since 2021, when they won it for the first time.
• GCU enters the game with 31 consecutive free throws made.
• Seattle U last qualified for the NCAA tournament in 1969.
• With a Friday win, the Redhawks would have three consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time since 1956-59.
• Seattle U suffered three losses when Tyson was injured and four losses in overtime this season.

For more pre-WAC Tournament notes on GCU from Las Vegas, click here.