Georgia

What we learned in Grand Canyon basketball losses to Georgia, Louisiana Tech

Published

1 year ago

December 17, 2024

Press Room

What we learned in Grand Canyon basketball losses to Georgia, Louisiana Tech

Grand Canyon lost a chance to make a big statement during its trip through the South.

The Lopes (6-4) had won four straight with their full team, after getting center Duke Brennan back from an injury.

But in a 73-68 loss to Georgia (9-1) on Saturday, followed by a 74-66 loss to Louisiana Tech on Monday, their biggest star, WAC Preseason Player of the Year Tyon Grant-Foster, had his two worst games since joining the Lopes last year and leading them to an historic 30-win season.

He shot a combined 2 for 25 in the losses, missing all 13 3-pointers he took. This is baffling for last year’s WAC Player of the Year, who averaged 20 points in his first college season in two years, leading the Lopes to their first NCAA Tournament win last season.

To make matters worse Monday night at Louisiana Tech (10-2), guard Ray Harrison was only 1 of 10 shooting, making just 1 of 7 3-pointers, two days after he led GCU with 16 points, making 2 of 4 3s, against Georgia.

Here are takeaways from this two-game swing as the Lopes look to recover Thursday night at home against 0-12 Chicago State. That will be followed by a 2 p.m. home game Sunday against Saint Louis:

Shooting woes

It wasn’t just Grant-Foster who struggled. The Lopes made only 7 of 27 3-pointers against Georgia and 2 of 27 from behind the arc against Louisiana Tech.

This was supposed to be a roster built to make 3-pointers. JaKobe Coles came from TCU, where he was a 42% shooter from 3. Coles was 1 of 5 from 3-point range against Georgia and 1 of 3 against Louisiana Tech. He led the Lopes with 19 points on 7 of 13 field-goal shooting against Louisiana Tech.

Both Coles and Grant-Foster missed open 3s in the final minute of the Georgia game. If either of them knock down a 3, it could have been a different outcome.

In the 75-68 home loss to UC Davis, the Lopes made just 4 of 25 3-pointers. Even against NAIA Life Pacific, a team the Lopes beat 100-52 before hitting the road, they made only 8 of 28 3-pointers.

On the season, Harrison has made 11 of 40 3-pointers (27.5%) and Grant-Foster 6 of 39 (15%). Last season, Grant-Foster, who made his living at the free-throw line, drawing fouls on quick moves to the basket, made 33% of his 3s (50 of 151), the second-best shooting percentage from the arc on the team, behind Gabe McGlothan (39.8%).

Against Louisiana Tech, the Lopes were within two points with 2:13 left, but got outscored 6-0 in the end.

“Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in for him,” coach Bryce Drew said in the postgame GCU radio interview about Grant-Foster, who missed the first two games this season. “It’s not going in right now. There’s other parts of his game that he can do. I thought at Georgia he did a great job getting six steals.

“He’s a much better player than he’s playing. My job as a coach is we’ve got to get it out of him. We’ve been trying different things in the last month, and we’re going to keep trying more things to get him back on track.”

Scheduling

Because the WAC and Conference USA were locked into a contract to have non-conference games against each other, GCU had to go to Louisiana Tech in this home-and-home series. Last year, GCU pulled out a 73-70 win over Louisiana Tech at home. This game happened to fall two days after facing Georgia against a pro-Bulldogs crowd at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

“The scheduling has been very difficult,” Drew said. “We would never ever played this game where we played it. It’s the Conference USA challenge with the WAC, so we had this game. We had a chance to play Georgia, a top-40 team, in Atlanta. We didn’t want to turn that game down.”

But Drew added he didn’t want to use the Georgia game as an excuse.

“I’ve got to do a better job in the future with scheduling,” he said. “It’s super hard to get games. Doing a back-to-back basically after a super physical Georgia game, and, for 40 minutes, I think you saw the legs come out a little bit on some of our 3-point shooting.”

Brennan not backing down

The overall play of 6-foot-10 Brennan has been a bright spot since his return from a shoulder injury that caused him to miss the first four games.

Brennan had 13 points on 5 of 6 shootings and pulled down seven rebounds against Louisiana Tech. He got big man Daniel Batcho to pick up two fouls and head to the bench after Louisiana Tech jumped out to a 13-2 lead.

GCU pulled ahead of Louisiana Tech late in the first half, but that couldn’t be sustained, as Batcho returned and finished with 19 points and seven rebounds without picking up another foul. Sean Newman Jr., had his season-average nine assists to go with 25 points.

Brennan had 10 points and eight rebounds against a big Georgia team that blocked nine GCU shots. Earlier this season, Brennan played well in the 78-71 Stanford win with 14 points and eight rebounds, going against Maxime Raynaud (29 points, 11 rebounds).

Georgia center Somto Cyril had 12 points, eight rebounds and five blocks against GCU.

“We’ve played three really good centers so far, and you look at those, and they’re as good as any center in the country,” Drew said. “Hopefully, we’re done playing that size and length for a while.

“Obviously, Saint Louis (Sunday’s home opponent) has a good center (Robbie Avila) but he’s a different kind of center. This stuff is going to make us better. It’s going to make our bigs better, our guards better, finishing, and also show what we need to work on in practice to get better.”

Richard Obert has been covering high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. He also covers Grand Canyon University athletics and the Arizona Rattlers. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert

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Georgia

Falcons address biggest hole with Georgia prospect in new mock draft

Published

3 hours ago

April 6, 2026

Press Room

Falcons address biggest hole with Georgia prospect in new mock draft

For a long time it seemed the Atlanta Falcons were purposefully avoiding drafting prospects from Georgia for some reason. There are signs that’s changing with the new front office regime, though. Last month Kirby Smart commented on how his program is developing a relationship with the Falcons.

That’s a good sign for Atlanta’s defensive front-seven, because that group needs all the help they can get and it’s where the Bulldogs have thrived the most in recent years. Jalon Walker is helping to reinvigorate their pass rush, and more help could be on the way soon.

In a new five-round mock draft from NFL.com, the Falcons hit up that local resource again and take Georgia defensive tackle Christen Miller at No. 48 overall.

At the combine Miller checked in at 6-foot-4, 321 pounds with 33″ arms and 10″ hands. Here’s the highlight reel.

Like most nose tackle prospects, Miller’s college production (four sacks, 11.5 TFL) doesn’t exactly jump off the page.

However, the scouting report on Miller mentions both upper and lower body power in addition to good balance. Those traits should make him a solid nose tackle at the next level.

If the Falcons do end up drafting Miller, he should project to be starting up front in Week 1.

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Georgia

6-foot alligator delays Delta flight taking off from Georgia airport

Published

16 hours ago

April 5, 2026

Press Room

6-foot alligator delays Delta flight taking off from Georgia airport

A Delta flight was delayed after a massive alligator plopped itself on the taxiway of a Georgia airport, according to reports.

Recently unearthed air traffic control audio captured the unusual moment the Delta pilot noticed the lazing gator at the Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport on the evening of March 20, WDSU reported.

A Delta flight was delayed after a massive alligator plopped itself on a taxiway at Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport. Getty Images

“There’s a six-foot gator sitting on his two legs,” the pilot said over the radio.

“Six foot?” the tower controller asked, to which the pilot replied, “Yeah. He’s about six foot.”

“He just laid down,” the pilot added.

An American alligator with its mouth open on sand. — The alligator was safely removed and relocated outside the airport grounds. Getty Images/National Geographic

Airport crew responded and safely removed the alligator to the airport, then relocated it outside the airport grounds, the outlet reported.

No one was injured during the incident, authorities added. It’s unclear how the alligator managed to wander into the airport unchecked.

Flight operations resumed shortly after the reptile was removed, the outlet said.

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Georgia

Passover ad featuring challah sparks backlash for Georgia Senate candidate | The Jerusalem Post

Published

1 day ago

April 5, 2026

Press Room

Passover ad featuring challah sparks backlash for Georgia Senate candidate | The Jerusalem Post

A Georgia Democratic candidate for the state Senate came under ridicule over the weekend after a Passover ad published in the Atlanta Jewish Times reportedly featured challah, a leavened bread traditionally avoided during the holiday. The controversy spread on Saturday after Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein posted about the ad on X.

Nathalie Kanani is running for Georgia State Senate District 14, and has publicly described herself as a candidate focused on affordability, healthcare, housing, education, and workers’ issues. In a LinkedIn post published about a month ago, she said she had officially qualified to run for the seat.

The issue appears to have stemmed from a holiday greeting in the Atlanta Jewish Times Passover edition, which was published this past week and included a wide range of Passover-themed community content and messages.

Bluestein wrote on X that a Georgia Senate candidate’s Passover ad in that week’s Atlanta Jewish Times “features challah,” adding, “It’s the thought that counts, I guess.” His post helped push the item into broader political and Jewish social media circles.

The mockery built quickly. Raw Story, which aggregated the reaction, quoted conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg joking that the image was like serving a “Yom Kippur BLT sandwich,” while progressive commentator Molly Jong-Fast called it “incredible” and added that “Veep was a documentary.” The same report also cited Georgia state Rep. Esther Panitch criticizing the mistake and noting that, as the only Jewish member of the Georgia General Assembly, she was available for “holiday consults.”

During Passover, Jews avoid hametz (leavened grain products), and bread is among the clearest examples of foods excluded from the holiday. Matzah, the flat unleavened bread eaten during Passover, is one of the most recognizable symbols of the festival.

That made challah, a braided bread commonly associated with Shabbat and other Jewish occasions, an especially awkward choice for a Passover greeting. For many Jewish readers, it signaled a basic misunderstanding of one of Judaism’s best-known observances.

As of Sunday, Kanani’s campaign had not issued any publicly visible response in the sources reviewed for this report.

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