Basketball

Photos by Darryl Webb GCU News Bureau The Lopes showed a lot of heart in their regular-season opener Saturday, taking an early lead over Duke and keeping it close until the No. 1-ranked Blue Devils blew the game open late in the first half and won 96-61. That was Duke’s biggest lead of the game, and it came after GCU cut the margin to 19 in the second half.  

Dr. James Beggs is looking for a few good roll players. The kind who can really wheel and deal. Ones who won’t just sit there and take it. The esteemed College of Arts and Sciences professor will be prowling the sideline, coaching a team from Banner Health and GCU against the Banner Phoenix Wheelchair Suns during a scrimmage at halftime of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game at GCU Arena. “Although there is no ‘i’ in ‘team,’ it has occurred to me that there are three ‘i’s’ in ‘annihilation,’” says Beggs, who hopes his squad can avoid that fate.

LAS VEGAS — If Jared Bearden has his way, the electric atmosphere inside GCU Arena for the Nov. 5 men’s basketball exhibition game against Arizona State University will be the rule and not the exception. Bearden, a junior, is the president of the Canyon Crazies student fan group, and he says he’s just getting warmed up. “This can go way beyond being a club,” Bearden said Friday at a tailgate party before GCU’s game against the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. “This can be what we stand for. It should be more than just games.

Was that a Suns game on Saturday night? With purple everywhere and a loud crowd of 4,702 including several guests with ties to the local NBA team — Jerry Colangelo, Al McCoy, Dick Van Arsdale and Josh Childress among them — the men’s basketball exhibition game between GCU and Arizona State University had a playoff-type atmosphere. It was the place to be for hoops fans, and the Antelopes hung with the much bigger Sun Devils well into the second half before falling, 89-69.

GCU and ASU face off in a cross-town showdown Saturday November 5, 2011. GCU students get pumped up for the first Men’s basketball game in the new arena! Can you Hear the Thunder?

You know what a typical school fight song sounds like. And that’s a problem, isn’t it? Because truthfully, they all sound the same: overly brassy marching music with lyrics as outdated as Grandpa’s moth-eaten letter sweater. Yawn. Get ready for something completely different. Get ready for Trevor McNevan, who has written the yet-untitled GCU fight song that will make its raucous debut over the Arena sound system at Monday’s Chapel.

This was a historic year for our Grand Canyon University Lady ‘Lopes basketball team who won the PacWest Championship and took their spirit to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division II tournament!

Athletes and coaches from GCU’s five winter sports teams were recognized Thursday evening at an event at the home of Chief Executive Officer Brian Mueller. Members of the Antelope cheer and dance teams also were honored at the reception, which wrapped up a highly successful season for GCU. Television sports personality Brad Cesmat served as master of ceremonies, briefly interviewing each coach and a few of the athletes.

Only two weeks removed from the end of the season, the head coach of the Antelope women’s basketball team has plunged headlong into fundraising for a mission trip to Malawi that’s less than six weeks away. Ten players and the team’s three coaches are committed to going, at a cost of $2,100 per person.

The season may be over, but these impressions remain of the three-game run by our women’s basketball team at the NCAA Division II West Regional in Pomona, Calif.