Top Seeds Dominate Day One at Orleans Arena
All four top seeds dominated their quarterfinal matchups on the first day at Orleans Arena
You were sorely disappointed if you were looking for interesting ball games in the first two sessions of the Western Athletic Conference at Orleans Arena.
It is always exciting to start the conference tournament. There is no denying that.
But Wednesday was a day that showed just how good the top-2 seeds in both the men’s and women’s brackets are.
The day started with the GCU women rolling to a 24-point win over Utah Tech and finished with the GCU men rolling to a 23-point win.
In between the GCU wins, the Tarleton State women put down the clamps defensively on Southern Utah in a 19-point win, and regular season champion Utah Valley cruised to a 74-57 win over rival Utah Tech.
For the GCU women, Wednesday was win number 30 on the season. Additionally, the Lopes have now won 28 straight games.
WAC Player of the Year Trinity San Antonio scored 25 points to lead the Lopes.
And sharpshooter Alyssa Durazo-Frescas set the new WAC record for made 3-pointers, breaking Hall of Famer Becky Hammon’s 26-year-old record.
For the Tarleton State women, things started slow…really slow. Do you want to know how slow? Nine points in the first quarter. That’s how slow.
But, the defense never changed in the Texans’ 20th win of the season, holding Southern Utah to just 28 percent shooting and 40 total points in a 59-40 win.
“It’s like I told them at halftime, if you’re going to be awful, be awful on the offensive side because defense travels,” Tarleton State head coach Bill Brock said. “We held them to less than 10 (points) for two of the quarters today. Our kids are to be congratuled for that. They gave a tremendous effort.”
20 wins is a program record in the Division I era for the Texans who will face either UT Arlington or California Baptist in Friday’s semifinals.
The two men’s games at Orleans Arena had some intrigue prior to tip on Wednesday night.
But, after about 15 minutes in both games, that intrigue was gone.
Utah Valley used an 8-0 run late in the second half to take a 9-point lead into the locker room, and just cruised to a 17-point win and the season sweep over rival Utah Tech.
Tanner Toolson’s 3-pointer from the WAC logo at mid-court as the shot clock expired was really the dagger in the Wolverines’ 24th win of the season.
Toolson finished with 16 points to lead the Wolverines. Carter Welling had 10 points. But, offensively, it was a balanced effort for the Wolverines, who shot 54 percent from the field after halftime.
Utah Valley will face the winner of ACU and Seattle U in Friday’s semifinals.
In a matchup of the same two teams that played for the WAC title in 2024, and with the return of Tyon Grant-Foster for GCU, there was some intrigue in the nightcap.
For 15 minutes, that intrigue held true. UT Arlington held its own, shot at a high clip, and defended about as well as one could.
But, in the final five minutes of the half, GCU held UT Arlington without a field goal to take control.
There were five technical fouls, one ejection, a flagrant foul, 42 fouls called, 57 free throws attempted, and 42 assists combined between the two teams.
It was ugly at times, but it was good basketball at times.
But, the Lopes, behind JaKobe Coles’ 24 points and the return of Tyon Grant-Foster got the final laugh in the series with UT Arlington to advance to Friday’s WAC semifinals for the 5th straight year under Bryce Drew.
GCU will face the winner between Tarleton State and California Baptist.
Hopefully, Thursday’s matchups between the 4-5 seeds and 3-6 seeds will bring more tournament-type ball games.