OREM, Utah — Josie Williams set a new single-season double-double record for Utah Valley but Jay McChristine scored on a putback with 5.7 seconds left to lift Grand Canyon to a 65-63 win on Thursday in the UCCU Center.
Williams finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds for her 21st double-double of the season, setting a new single-season program record. Ja'mya Powell-Smith led all scorers with 18 points. A back-and-forth contest that saw 13 ties and 14 lead changes resulted with the Lopes (20-8, 13-4) securing the No. 2 seed in next week's WAC Tournament while the Wolverines (14-14, 9-8) can clinch the No. 4 seed with a win on Saturday over New Mexico State.
"Rebounding was really one of my biggest frustrations and it cost us the game tonight," said UVU head coach
Dan Nielson. "GCU had some kids step up and hit some shots but our individual defense in the zone wasn't where it needed to be. I was proud of the effort, but I thought we had too many mental errors down the stretch to be able to finish it off."
The teams traded runs early with Utah Valley answering a 6-0 GCU start with eight straight points, four coming from
Madison Grange. The Lopes scored five straight to take an 11-8 when
Emma Martin buried a corner three to tie it. Down 15-11 late in the quarter, the Wolverines got out on transition after a
Maria Carvalho rebound with
Kayla Anderson scoring on an assist from
Eleyana Tafisi to make it a 15-13 after after 10 minutes.
The game was tied at 18-18 when Amara Graham knocked down her second of three first-half 3-pointers and McChristine followed with a layup to give GCU a 23-18 lead. Williams scored the next six for UVU, including three on a 3-point-play. The Wolverines were able to get to the line 12 times in the second quarter, converting on 10, as the teams played the second quarter even. The Lopes led 33-31 at the half.
UVU led 39-38 before
Megan Jensen scored on a layup in transition on an assist from Carvalho, and Tafisi picked Graham's pocket and went the length of the court to make it 43-38 and force a GCU timeout. Anderson hit a 3-pointer from the corner to push a one-point lead back to four, 46-42, but Grand Canyon closed the third on a 9-2 run including a jumper from Powell-Smith just before the horn. GCU led 51-48 after three.
Powell-Smith scored the first five points of the fourth to extend Grand Canyon's run to 16-2, including nine straight to take its biggest lead of the game, 56-48. Carvalho stopped the run with a 3-pointer as UVU began to chip away. The Wolverines trailed 61-57 with three minutes remaining when Grange hit two free throws and Carvalho knocked down a jumper to tie it. Powell-Smith gave the Lopes the lead right back but that was answered when Williams pulled down an offensive rebound and put it back to tie it at 63 with just over one minute left.
Carvalho finished with 14 points while Grange added 12 points and six assists and Anderson chipped in eight points for the Wolverines. Tiarra Brown finished with 15 points for Grand Canyon, Graham added 13 and McChristine scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench.
The Wolverines will close out the conference regular season on Saturday against New Mexico State with their seed still undecided. A win secures the No. 4 seed while a loss could drop UVU to as low as the No. 7 seed depending on Abilene Christian's result at Tarleton and Lamar's result at California Baptist.
