Las Vegas • Utah Valley guard Jerrelle DeBerry’s shot from the right corner looked good in his effort to extend the Wolverines’ second-half rally and alter the script of a Western Athletic Conference tournament semifinal game.
DeBerry’s 3-point try could have cut Grand Canyon’s lead to one point in the last seven minutes. But the ball went in and out of the basket, and UVU never came that close again in a 75-60 loss at Orleans Arena.
“This game can be unkind,” said UVU coach Mark Pope, who believed Friday’s outcome failed to “tell the story right” about his team and its season.
Yet that’s the account the No. 2-seeded Wolverines (22-10) must live with, having lost in the semifinals for the third time in five seasons of WAC membership. UVU likely will have a postseason opportunity in an event below the NIT level, but the Wolverines were hoping to give themselves a shot at an NCAA Tournament berth.
That prize remains available to Grand Canyon. After his team survived UVU’s surge from 17 points down early in the second half, Grand Canyon coach Dan Majerle charged into the student section to celebrate a victory that sent the Lopes into Saturday night’s championship game vs. the New Mexico State-Seattle winner. This is Grand Canyon’s first season of postseason eligibility, having completed an NCAA Division I transition period.
UVU center Akolda Manyang finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds and Kenneth Ogbe added 12 points for the Wolverines, who made only 3 of 19 attempts from 3-point range and shot 35.5 percent overall.
The Lopes (22-10) had scored 56 and 60 points against UVU in splitting the regular-season series. They were almost unstoppable in taking a 41-27 halftime lead. Grand Canyon led 27-9 midway through the half as Italian center Alessandro Lever, who had made six 3-pointers all season, hit three of them in a row.
In the second half, though, Grand Canyon “had to absorb a punch,” said Majerle, a former NBA star.
The Wolverines’ defense spurred their comeback, on a night when their usually efficient offense never got going. As the momentum turned, Grand Canyon showed the signs of skittishness that had surfaced in the early stages of a quarterfinal win over Missouri-Kansas City. The Lopes trailed by 16 in that game, much as UVU fell behind by 18 on Friday in a start Pope labeled “a little weird.”
Seemingly out of the game, UVU used a 16-3 run to get within four points with a response that Ogbe attributed to his team’s “just staying together … trying to make something happen.”
It was 53-49 when DeBerry missed from the corner. Ogbe’s foul on Grand Canyon’s next possession enabled Josh Braun to make three free throws and, after the Wolverines were within five points in the last five minutes, they faded again.
The Lopes hit only 4 of their first 17 attempts in the second half, but Keonta Vernon’s consecutive shots in the lane enabled them to regain control as the Wolverines’ lack of offense stalled their comeback. UVU’s Toolson cousins, Jake and Conner, totaled seven points after combining for 37 in a quarterfinal win over Cal State Bakersfield.
Pope described the defeat as “just a devastating way for us to finish this WAC tournament.”