{"id":1928,"date":"2024-12-04T03:31:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T13:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/?p=1928"},"modified":"2024-12-07T00:48:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T10:48:38","slug":"grand-canyon-survives-warriors-rally-78-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/04\/grand-canyon-survives-warriors-rally-78-72\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Canyon survives Warriors’ rally, 78-72"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hawai’i forward Gytis Nemeiksa scored a game-high 24 points off the bench on Tuesday to help the visiting Warriors take Grand Canyon down to the wire. (Chris Kadooka file photo)
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Wreaking havoc on Grand Canyon with torrid second-half shooting, Hawai’i rallied hard but fell short against the host Lopes, 78-72, in entertaining nonconference men’s basketball action Tuesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typically energetic crowd of 7,004 in Global Credit Union Arena in Phoenix watched Gytis Nemeiksa score a game-high 24 points off the bench and reserve guard Marcus Greene add 17 points and five rebounds as the Warriors fell to 5-2. Tyon Grant-Foster scored 23 points and grabbed six boards and Ray Harrison added 15 points and seven rebounds for GCU, which improved to 5-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lopes led 56-38 after Grant-Foster’s 3-pointer from the left wing with 13:12 remaining, but Akira Jacobs answered with a transition driving layup to ignite a stunning 19-2 run capped by Nemeiksa’s 3-pointer to close it to 58-57 with 7:20 left to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams then traded baskets for the next five minutes and Ryan Rapp’s short fadeaway banker from the left side made it 67-66 with 2:28 showing on the clock. But that was as close as UH would get, as Grand Canyon created some breathing room until Greene’s jumper from the right elbow closed it to 72-68 with 36 ticks remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lopes then sealed the victory with free throws down the stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m really proud of the second half,” Warriors coach Eran Ganot said in a postgame radio interview on ESPN Honolulu 1420AM. “That’s a Top-25 (caliber) team, now they’re completely healthy. And in this rocking atmosphere … we didn’t get it done, and I’m not happy about that. But we had the potential, and you saw that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GCU jumped out to leads of 8-0, 16-5 and 21-8 in the first eight minutes, and then stretched it to 40-22 with 2:38 remaining in the half. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the first 20 minutes, the Lopes shot 53 percent from the field, compared to just 32 percent for Hawai’i. They made 4 of 6 shots from 3-point range, while the Warriors made just two of 11 shots from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grand Canyon committed only five turnovers in the first half, compared to 13 for the Warriors, and the Lopes scored a collective 16 points off turnovers, versus only three points for UH. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Being stronger and tougher with the ball,” Ganot said, describing his team’s priority in the second half. “We were strong on the boards, but we weren’t strong with the ball. Thirteen turnovers at the half … The message was also get inside with screens. We started to get some really good reads and screens at the point of attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think that was a big difference.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grand Canyon maintained the 18-point lead at 56-38 until almost eight minutes into the second half, when Jacobs’ layup started the 19-2 run that keyed the comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one stretch, the Warriors made 10 straight field goals, with Nemeiksa’s hot shooting highlighting the surge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We talked about how he can really shoot, and he struggled early in the first couple games, but I love that he stayed aggressive with it,” Ganot said. “And I love that we stayed aggressive with it (overall). We had some wide-open looks in the first half, that didn’t go in. But that’s process, that’s playing right. The boards kept us in there, you always gotta keep working and build off of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We gotta get better, we gotta be more consistent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawai’i returns to action on Saturday with its Big West Conference opener at Long Beach State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wreaking havoc on Grand Canyon with torrid second-half shooting, Hawai’i rallied hard but fell short against the host Lopes, 78-72, in entertaining nonconference men’s basketball action Tuesday night. A typically energetic crowd of 7,004 in Global Credit Union Arena in Phoenix watched Gytis Nemeiksa score a game-high 24 points off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}