3 takeaways after GCU squanders big lead in final-second loss to UTRGV

Grand Canyon's basketball team picked up a WAC win via forfeit this week after New Mexico State suspended the remainder of its season.

But on the court, the Antelopes' struggles continued Wednesday night in a 77-76 loss to UT Rio Grande Valley. GCU blew a 15-point first-half lead and was outscored by 10 in the second half before a crowd of 6,039 at GCU Arena.

The inability to block out on the defensive glass, key turnovers down the stretch and a bad scoring drought did them in again, four days after seeing a nine-point lead disappear in Seattle U and getting outscored 16-2 to end the game in a 63-58 loss.

Here are three takeaways from GCU's second straight WAC loss that put the Lopes at 16-10 and 8-6 in conference. GCU might end up playing four games in five days in Las Vegas for the WAC Tournament:

Surrendering second-chance points

UTRG (13-14, 5-10) made 23 second-chance points, the biggest coming with 1.6 seconds left, when Daylen Williams grabbed his 12th rebound and scored as he was fouled to give the Vaqueros the lead. Justin Johnson, who led them with 24 points, drove around Yvan Ouedraogo and put up a shot that missed. But Gabe McGlothan couldn't get in position to grab the rebound and the ball glanced off to Williams for the putback. He then purposely missed the free throw and Noah Baumann, smothered after rebounding, had no chance at a shot.

"We actually talked specifically about boxing out 15 (Williams) in the hudle (during the timeout)," coach Bryce Drew said. "We just didn't."

Ray Harrison had given GCU its first lead in a while on a put-back after he missed his free throw on a three-point play attempt with 28 seconds to play.

Drew felt that fatigue factored into how the team played.

"I think our guys played tired," Drew said. "We had guys who did not look like themselves. Gabe looked fresh. Pretty much everyone else looked tired."

McGlothan and Gabe Knox's career nights wasted

McGlothan matched a career high with 27 points, 18 coming in the first half, which was a career first-half high for the former Chandler Basha High standout.

Knox, a redshirt freshman guard, had five blocked shots, which tied a GCU Division I record, done three other times, the last by center Asbjorn Midtgaard two years ago against Tarleton.

A second-half shooting drought was tough for GCU to overcome. After shooting 58% in the first half when it built a 42-27 lead, GCU made only 37.1% of its shots in the second half, when the Vaqueros made 42.9% of their field goals after shooing 33% in the first half.

GCU also missed nine free throws in the game and watching Johnson make all eight of his free-throw attempts.

Johnston's dagger 3

GCU tied the score at 70 on Chance McMillian's basket with 4:33 to play. But a Harrison turnover with UTRGV up by two led to the shot of the game.

After GCU did a good job defending and forcing the Vaqueros to inbound the ball under their basket with 4 seconds left on the shot clock, guard Will Johnston hit a 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down to give his team a 75-70 lead with 2:15 to play.

Johnston had 22 points, making 5 of 7 3-pointers.

"He had a career night against us," Drew said. "We still had a chance. We fought back. We had a chance to win it. But it hurt us all game, we couldn't get a defensive rebound to end the game."

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 3 takeaways from GCU missing WAC opportunity in loss to UTRGV