Arizona fell behind after a 3-pointer by Alyssa Durazo-Frescas gave Grand Canyon a 64-63 lead with just over two minutes to go and the Lopes pulled out a 69-66 win over Arizona at McKale Center.
A layup by Laura Erikstrup made it a 66-63 game with 45 seconds remaining. On the next possession, GCU’s Trinity San Antonio stole the ball, was fouled and made both free throws to extend the Lopes’ lead to 68-63. Durazo-Frescas made one out of two free throws to make it a six-point lead. Jada Williams hit a 3-pointer with 15 seconds to go to narrow the lead to 69-66, but she missed a contested 3-pointer as time expired.
Arizona head coach Adia Barnes said foul trouble and youth played a factor down the stretch after Durazo-Frescas hit the 3 that gave senior and grad transfer-loaded GCU a lead it never gave up. Breya Cunningham, Skylar Jones and Paulina Paris all had four fouls at that point, and San Antonio and the Lopes took advantage.
“Brea has foul trouble so they’re putting her in slip action, and then we didn’t have an answer and our guards are in foul trouble, so San Antonio was just isolating us,” Barnes said. “They were running misdirection overload, and she’s right hand driving. So, they did a good job of exploiting our weaknesses and where we were struggling.”
San Antonio led all scorers with 26 points on 9 of 13 shooting, adding a game-high 12 rebounds, four assists and four steals for the Lopes.
“We couldn’t contain her off the dribble, and when we did, when we popped back, what did she do? She hit a couple of threes.” Barnes said.
Paris was guarding Durazo-Frescas when she hit the late 3-pointer.
“I went under a screen I shouldn’t have went under. So, I take responsibility for that,” she said. “They went on a run, and we didn’t get enough stops, didn’t get enough scores and we ended up losing.”
There were 14 lead changes, with Arizona leading for almost 28 minutes.
Arizona (7-4) extended its lead to 40-31 off two layups by Cunningham to begin the third quarter. But GCU went on an 11-0 run off a 3-pointer by San Antonio, a 3-point play by Durazo-Frescas, another 3-pointer by San Antonio and a layup by Tiarra Brown to give the Lopes a 42-40 lead at the media timeout with just over four minutes to go in the frame. A layup by Callie Cooper after the timeout extended the run to 13.
“They were kind of trapping us and aggressive at switching guards going under all over on-balls when we weren’t hitting threes,” Barnes said. “So, it just gave us a really hard time, and we couldn’t ever run offense. Which is weird because we ran offense effectively in the first half and they didn’t do anything different, really, except they were probably a little bit more aggressive coming out in the second half.”
The Wildcats would regain the lead twice with two 3-pointers by Swann in the closing minutes of the third quarter.
GCU had a 51-50 lead after three quarters.
The loss for Arizona comes after a solid 78-43 win over Seattle on Monday at McKale, following an up-and-down November that ended with the Wildcats dropping three of four of its last games in the month, including a disappointing 92-75 loss at NAU on Nov. 20 and two losses to Vanderbilt and Cal at the Acrisure Holiday Invitational in Palm Springs.
Thursday’s game was the first-ever matchup for both programs.
GCU (6-2) came into McKale Thursday with an 81 NET ranking, eight spots below Arizona’s NET rank of 73. GCU’s two losses this season came on the road at Oregon and Middle Tennessee. The Lopes defeated Arizona State on Nov. 14 at Footprint Center in Phoenix.
Cunningham led all Arizona scorers with 20 points on 10 of 13 shooting. She added six rebounds. Four other Wildcats scored double figures. Paris had 12 points, Williams and Lauryn Swann had 11, and Jones had 10. Williams also had six rebounds and four assists.
Isis Beh was in concussion protocol for the second straight game and did not play but is expected to suit up when Arizona hosts Cal State Bakersfield next Tuesday.
Arizona held an 11-8 advantage at the first media timeout of the game, with Paris and Cunningham accounting for four points each. Arizona then went on a 6-0 run that ended with a fast break layup by Jones to stretch its lead to 17-8 with just over two minutes remaining in the first quarter.
GCU went on its own 6-0 run early in the second quarter off two 3-pointers by Durazo-Frescas and Cooper, giving the Lopes a 21-19 lead. A jumper by San Antonio tied the game at 25 at the 4:51 mark and Arizona went on a 5-0 run on a layup from Jones and a 3-pointer from Swann to take a 30-25 lead with over three minutes remaining before half.
The Wildcats had a 36-31 lead at half aided by 10 steals and 12 points off turnovers. Williams and Jones each had three steals at the break.
Arizona had 12 steals in the game, finishing with 15 points off GCU’s 19 turnovers.
The Wildcats turned the ball over 17 times.
Arizona next plays Cal State Bakersfield (0-7) on Dec. 10 at 6 p.m. at McKale Center.
FOLLOW @KEVINMURFEE ON TWITTER!ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com writer Kevin Murphy was born and raised in Tucson, and has followed Arizona Wildcats athletics since childhood. Murphy is a journalist product manager with the Green Valley News & the Sahuarita Sun. He has a bachelor’s degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU.
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