Putting itself in a great position to keep its string of AWBL Championship game appearances going,
Grand Canyon University Women's Club Basketball Team 1 finished off its regular season schedule in Arizona Women's Basketball League play a perfect 11-0 after a 63-56 win over Arizona State University Club Team 1 Saturday morning at the Lopes' Performance Center on the GCU campus. Not only is it the first time the Lopes went through the regular season without a league loss, it's also the first time that GCU will enter this week's AWBL Playoffs as the top seed.
As with several of their games this season, it was anything but a foregone conclusion that they'd pull off the win – even late in the game. ASU's only loss on the season had been to the Lopes two weeks ago, and the Sun Devils knew that a win over GCU, then a win in their game following that against Arizona Christian University, would snatch the regular season title and the top seed away from the team in purple. The Lopes fell behind, 7-2, within the game's first three minutes, then went on a 16-3 run. That eight-point lead disappeared quickly, and GCU spent most of the next two quarters playing catch-up – although not by any wide margins. The Devils protected a two-possession lead throughout much of the 3
rd quarter before heading to the 4
th quarter with a 45-43 edge. That's when GCU freshman
Kira Carter stepped to the forefront, hitting five of her six shot attempts in the final period - including three from behind the three-point arc. Before ASU knew what hit them, the Lopes owned a 10-point lead with four minutes left, and the threat to their undefeated season was over. Carter finished with a game-high 18 points (13 coming in the 4
th quarter), while
Mia Brown (13 points),
Maggie Hobson and
Aliya Quintana (11 points each) had big second-half performances as well. Sasha Daniel paced the ASU attack with 15 points but was the only Sun Devil in double figures.
The 11-0 record might surprise some who've watched the team, since the Lopes aren't flashy but extremely effective. As their head coach points out, though, defense is the epitome of that.
"I've been excited about how the girls have bought into our concepts - especially on the defensive end," said
Lopes' Head Coach Josh Braun. "Our turnovers in the first half have usually resulted in opponents getting fast breaks, but we've done a great job of adjusting in the second half, taking care of the ball better so we can set up on defense. We then make it tougher for teams to score and make them uncomfortable."
GCU Team 1 now gets to sit and watch the early rounds of the tournament, since they now have a bye all the way to the AWBL Semifinals round Saturday. The AWBL Playoffs begin tonight at 6PM in the Canyon Activity Center on campus with the 6
th-place through 9
th-place AWBL teams – including GCU's Team 2 and Team 3 - paring down to one surviving team in the play-in round. That last team will advance to Saturday's six-team playoff field. The full playoff schedule is below:
| AWBL PLAYOFFS |
| (all games at Canyon Activity Center-GCU Campus) |
| Monday, February 24th-6PM |
| #6 Park vs. #9 GCU Team 2 |
| #7 GCU Team 3 vs. #8 ASU Team 2 |
| Monday, February 24th-7:30PM |
| #6/#9 winner vs. #7/#8 winner |
| Saturday, March 1st-8AM (Quarterfinals) |
| #4 Ottawa vs. #5 ACU Team 1 |
| #3 ACU Team 2 vs. Feb 24th play-in winner |
| Saturday, March 1st-9:30AM (Semifinals) |
| #1 GCU Team 1 vs. lowest remaining seed |
| #2 ASU Team 1 vs. highest remaining seed |
| Saturday, March 1st-11AM (Championship Game) |
| TBD |
