After reaching the Arizona Women's Basketball League Championship Game for the fifth straight year, Grand Canyon University Women's Club Basketball Team 1's attempt to win back-to-back AWBL titles fell short, losing, 79-42, to top-seeded Bella Vista College Preparatory, Saturday afternoon at the Canyon Activity Center on the GCU campus. The win brought the Bears their 3^rd AWBL title overall, and their first since 2020. The loss sealed the Lopes a 2^nd-place finish in the league for the fourth time in AWBL's five-year history.
 
The odds of winning the title were somewhat tall – considering that BVCP had only lost two games all season (and one of them was a forfeit) in winning the regular season crown, while the Lopes had scrambled to win their last three regular season meetings to clinch the 3^rd seed. That meant the Lopes had to go the long route to the title matchup Saturday, since only the top two seeds coming out of the regular season (Bella Vista and #2 Arizona State University Club) would get first-round playoff byes. The Lopes overcame a slow start in the quarterfinal round Saturday morning to eliminate 6^th-seeded GCU Team 2, 55-21, behind 14 points from Kirstin Wambeke. That sent GCU to the semifinal round 20 minutes, where they went toe-to-toe with rested ASU, leading most of the game but never by more than seven until pulling away in the 4^th quarter to win, 76-65. The Lopes had four players in double figures, and needed all of them in outlasting the Sun Devils, with both Aubree Evans and Taylor Hibicke pacing the way with 17 points apiece.
 
The Bears played a semifinal-round game at the same time as the GCU-ASU matchup, but ran past a tiring Park University Team 1 squad in an 81-44 rout - therefore came to the title matchup with fresher legs. It showed from the outset, with Bella Vista's transition game giving them an early 9-2 lead and eventually a 19-point halftime edge, and the Lopes never got closer than that in the 2^nd half. The Bears had a balanced attack, with Gal Raviv and Aiyanna Perkins leading the way with 16 points each, while GCU's Daniella Lopez posted her 3^rd double-digit scoring effort of the day with 14 points to lead the Lopes.
 

 





















The Lopes finished the AWBL campaign with an 11-6 overall record and an 8-4 mark in AWBL play.