WBB: Lopes clinch title as curtain closes on regular season rivalry with CBU
Durazo-Frescas, San Antonio and Brown combine to score 56 as Lopes take care of business in Riverside to push winning streak to 23 and make history...
RIVERSIDE, CA— Control what you can control.
That was GCU women’s basketball coach Molly Miller’s message to her team on Saturday as the Lopes visited CBU for one last regular season matchup as conference colleagues with an opportunity to clinch a regular season title.
GCU did just that, leading for 38:33 of a possible 40 minutes and by as many as 26 points, in a 74-56 victory at the Fowler Events Center. They earned no worse than a share of the regular season title with two weeks left as Tarleton State defeated UT Arlington 67-57 at Wisdom Gym and also pushed their national best winning streak to 23 games.
The win is GCU’s second in Riverside for Miller in five games.
“A lot of credit goes to our practice players for their ability to simulate CBU over the course of this week and making sure we were ready to go defensively,” Miller said. “I couldn’t be prouder of this group for making history but especially Tiarra. She’s been with me for five years and to see that look on her face at the end made it all worth everything we’ve gone through together. ”
CBU’s Khloe Lemon hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 10 with 6:16 left in the first quarter. However, the Lopes closed on a 17-4 run to take a 27-14 lead after a quarter. Alyssa-Durazo Frescas hit two of her seven 3-pointers in Saturday’s win during that run and is now 19 away from breaking Becky Hammon’s 25 year old record for most made 3-pointers in a WAC season. The Lopes defense also forced six turnovers in that run.
The lead was 21 for GCU at intermission after a Laura Erikstrup layup with 12 seconds left in the half.
Another Durazo-Frescas 3-pointer with 7:15 left in the third quarter gave GCU their game high lead of 26 points. CBU cut the deficit to 19 after CeCe Legaspi scored seven straight points over a 75 second span and the Lancers were down 16 points after three quarters.
Shawnee Nordstrom’s 3-pointer with 9:10 left cut the GCU lead to 57-45 but that’s as close as the Lancers got. An 8-0 GCU run pushed the lead back to 20 with 6:38 left after Callie Cooper’s 3-pointer and the clock counted down to history.
Durazo-Frescas finished with 21 points while San Antonio added 20 points with six assists. Tiarra Brown also chipped in 15 points along with four rebounds, four assists, and four steals.
When Miller was named the GCU coach in spring of 2020 her predecessor Nicole Powell, who left to take over at UC Riverside, didn’t even have a recruiting class in place.
During the very unique recruiting that took place during COVID, Miller’s first recruit was Brown.
“I heard high school Defensive Player of the Year, my ears perked up, and I didn’t need to watch a lot of film to realize she’d be a perfect fit here,” Miller reflected about Brown on the Straight Outta WAC Podcast. “A lot of credit goes to her for sticking with it through everything a college basketball career can throw at a player.”
In those first four regular season campaigns together, GCU recorded finishes of third (likely would’ve been tied for second if Chicago State had been willing to play their scheduled series in the ‘20-’21 season), second, fourth, and second.
They’ve also reached two WAC tournament championship games and a pair of semifinals.
With the result already known in Stephenville, Miller got to pull Brown with 10 seconds left, tell her she was a regular season champion, and that they accomplished one of the goals they laid out five years ago.
“Hard work, dedication, and commitment pays off with a moment like that,” Brown said. “But we’ve still got something to prove to ourselves in Las Vegas by earning that tournament championship and we’ll be ready for that challenge.”
GCU visits UT Arlington on Thursday before hosting Seattle U on Saturday.