The crowd was rocking at GCU arena in Phoenix Saturday night in anticipation of the showdown with New Mexico State. The Lopes win they had a chance to catch the mighty Aggies who have been the class of the WAC the past few years, and a shot at first place. Although Grand Canyon University (16-12 7-4 WAC) got off to a great start, New Mexico State (19-10 11-1 WAC) settled down and counterpunched the Lopes thanks to WAC preseason player of the year Daniel Mullings and defeated the Lopes 72-55.

The Lopes jumped out to a 16-6 lead with 13:23 left in the first half. That is when Mullings, with his dizzying array of shots, took over and the Aggies went on a 24-4 run. New Mexico State took a 37-29 lead into the half.

Offensively the Aggies shot 55 percent from the floor (27-of-49). They four players in double-figures, led by Remi Barry with 18 points, Daniel Mullings chipped in 16 points and five assists, Pascal Siakam had 13 points and Ian Baker ended up with 10 points.

 The second half saw much of the same as the size and relentless full court press and zone defense caused the Lopes all kinds of trouble. NMST outrebounded GCU 34-19 as their big men again and again hit the glass hard over the smaller Lopes. GCU would not get closer than eight points the rest of the game. New Mexico State shot 55 percent (27-for-49) from the field. Grand Canyon shot 40 percent (19-for-27) for the contest. The lone bright spot scoring for GCU was guard Royce Woolridge who ended up with a game high 20 points. DeWayne Russell also added 10 points for the Lopes.

New Mexico State will now travel to Texas for a visit at University Texas Pan-American on Sat. February 28th at 6:00 pm. Grand Canyon will hit on the road and travel to Chicago for a matchup with Chicago State at 6:00 pm on February 26th.

Notes:

New Mexico State, with the victory became the outright WAC regular season champion.

The recorded attendance at the GCU Arena was 7,005 and was one of the largest of the season.

New Mexico State Senior Tshilidzi Nephawe had nine points in the contest, becoming the 32nd player in NM State history to score 1,000 points with a free throw in the first half.

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About the author
Daren Sweet
Recently retired from the US Air Force in 2013, I am currently excited to be writing articles for Vavel.com covering Arizona sports and focusing on Grand Canyon University basketball. I am a 1992 GCU grad and Antelopes hoop junkie.