Hard to beat a team three times in a season – much less in the span of three weeks.
 
But it can be done.
 
Grand Canyon University Women's Club Basketball Team 1 proved just that on its most important stage, battling back late in the championship game of the Arizona Women's Basketball League to eke out a 58-57 win over Arizona State University Club Team 1 Saturday morning at the Canyon Activity Center on the GCU campus. It was the second time in the last month that a game between the top-seeded Lopes and Sun Devils was decided at the final buzzer. It's the second AWBL crown the Lopes have earned in the last three seasons, and it brought the curtain down on the first undefeated AWBL season (13-0) in GCU's history.
 
All three meetings between the Lopes' and Sun Devils' top teams have been crucial to the Lopes' success, since the 50-49 GCU victory on February 8 broke a 1^st-place tie between the two remaining undefeated squads; GCU's 63-56 win last weekend at the Lopes' Performance Center clinched the top seed for the Lopes and a first-round bye; and then there was Saturday. It was the second game of the day for both, with the 2^nd-seeded Sun Devils surviving a 63-60 semifinal win over 3^rd-seeded Arizona Christian University JV Team 2; and the Lopes having little trouble dispatching upstart 5^th seed ACU Team 2, 67-28, in the same round.
 
That set the stage for a mammoth championship matchup that didn't disappoint, since there were very few leads of more than six points throughout the 40 minutes. After a first half with an 18-18 tie after one quarter and a 30-29 Lopes' lead at the intermission, the Sun Devils came out of the 2^nd-half gates quickly, smothering GCU defensively and turning that into an early 36-32 lead. As it has all season, though, the Lopes' 2^nd-half defense took hold, keeping ASU scoreless for the final three minutes of the quarter while key buckets from Olivia Wood gave GCU a 42-36 lead after three periods.
 
Suddenly, it was the Lopes' turn to go cold, missing their first eight shots of the 4^th quarter, and seeing a pair of Sophie Deveny three-pointers spark a 10-0 ASU run to put GCU in a 46-42 hole with 4:33 left. Lopes' Head Coach Josh Braun called a timeout to calm his charges, and Wood's putback on the next play ended the scoring drought. ASU refused to relinquish the lead, trading hoops with the Lopes until the final minute. An Aubree Evans jumper with 40 seconds left brought the Lopes within two points (57-55), and an ensuing ASU turnover gave the Lopes a chance for the lead. Wood's driving layup was partially blocked, but Amelia Gallegos grabbed the carom and fed Maggie Hobson, who buried a three-pointer to give the Lopes the lead with 10.7 seconds left. GCU's aggressive defense nearly forced a steal twice in ASU's final possession, but the Sun Devils' Julia Curran still found an open spot for a three-point attempt that clanged off the rim at the buzzer.
 
Hobson saved one of her best games for the last with a game-high 23 points, while Evans (12 points) and Wood (11 points in only her second game back from injury) also finished in double figures. Sasha Daniel led the Sun Devils with 19.
 








The Lopes didn't have much time to celebrate after the championship trophy was handed to Braun, since they are taking part in the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) Region VI Championship Series Basketball Tournament at the Canyon Activity Center all this weekend. Once that's completed, they'll get some time off to prepare for their second straight trip to Madison, Wisconsin, and the NIRSA National Women's Basketball Tournament, where they finished as the national runnerup last April.