Grand Canyon University (10-8, 1-0 WAC)  held off its Western Athletic Conference foe Cal State University Bakersfield  (4-11, 0-1 WAC) 73-65 Saturday night, Jan 10th 2015 at GCU arena in Phoenix. It was the conference opener for both squads.

Once again the Lopes were lead by DeWayne Russell who scored a game high 24 points. He also added 8 assists. Daniel Alexander came off the bench to score a season high 19 points. Since Russell has been inserted into the starting lineup Alexander has really become the spark and go to player for GCU. His highlight dunk with 14:06 left in the first half brought the crowd of 5,662 on their feet. Royce Woolridge was the third GCU player to score in double figures with 13 points.

CSUB was led by Kevin May’s career high 16 points. Javonte Maynor also scored 13 points. Brent Wrapp scored a career high 9 points for the Runners.

GCU got off to a hot first half shooting 50% (8-16) from the three point line as they built a 35-32 first half lead. CSUB kept the game close connecting on back to back buckets in the final minutes of the first half. The second half saw the Lopes get out to an 8 point lead only to see the Runners close the gap to 56-53 with a little over 6 minutes left to play. CSUB cut the lead to 61-60 when Royce Woolridge hit a 3 pointer and the Lopes never looked back going on a 9 point run. GCU shoot 60% from the field in the final 20 minutes.

Grand Canyon is coming off an 8 game home stretch and will not hit the road to face Utah Valley at 7 p.m. on Thursday January 15th. Bakersfield will host defending WAC champion New Mexico state on January 15th at the Icardo Center.

NOTES:

Bakersfield was without its leading scorer Aly Ahmed due to an ankle injury but still scored 30 points in the paint.

Grand Canyon University Coach Dan Majerle added another top notch transfer to the program last week. Dominic Magee, who recently played at the University of Memphis, is set to join the squad immediately.

Magee tweeted out a photo of him with Coach Majerle and USA Basketball president Jerry Colangelo on January 3rd. The caption read: “Time to get BCK on the grind and chase this dream. Committed to Grand Canyon to play for Dan Majerle in Arizona.”

Magee was a 4 star recruit out of Helen Cox High School in New Orleans. After he announced his intention to leave Memphis many thought he would land back at LSU. But after looking at schools like Oregon, Oklahoma, and Louisiana Tech he settled on the 2nd year Division 1 program in the desert of Phoenix.

Grand Canyon and CSU Bakersfield were once NCAA Division 2 foes from 1994 to 2004 as members of the California Athletic Conference. CSUB won three NCAA D2 men’s basketball titles during that time.