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By Kendall Flynn
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – It may be early in the season, but GCU women’s basketball has proven that few opponents stand a chance against the Lopes’ 3-pointer specialists.
GCU knows its best shooters, finds them and feeds them from behind the arc. Even when a play breaks down, the Lopes can regroup and get the ball in their hands. In Thursday’s Hall of Fame Series Phoenix showcase against Arizona State, senior guard Alyssa Durazo-Frescas was the top recipient.
After 11 turnovers in the first half of Thursday’s game against ASU (3-1), the Lopes cut it down to four in the second half and used sharp shooting and relentless defense to rally from a halftime deficit for a 70-59 win at Footprint Center.
For the Lopes (2-1), the victory at Footprint Center only gave them a bigger stage to show off what coach Molly Miller calls “GCU basketball.”
“We just played our brand of basketball,” Miller said after the game.
That brand wouldn’t be possible without the players to execute Miller’s playing style. Durazo-Frescas capitalized by knocking down a team-high six 3-pointers on 10 attempts, while the Sun Devils finished with five.
However, the Hall of Fame Series was just a continuance of this 3-point shooting display that the Lopes have started this season, increasing last season’s percentage of 32% to 36% while taking four more 3s per game (10) through three games. In their home opener against California State University Bakersfield, GCU made 14 of 26 3-pointers compared to the Roadrunners’ 0-for-17 shooting night from deep. Nearly the same trend held in their second contest against Middle Tennessee, which only made 1-of-11 3-point attempts, while GCU shot 7-for-32.
The Lopes are living by the 3 to start this season, as ASU witnessed firsthand, with Durazo-Frescas sometimes shooting from behind the NBA 3-point line.
“Yeah, I knew where (my feet) were,” she said while laughing after Thursday’s game. “My teammates gave me all the confidence in the world. That’s not all me. It’s (Tiarra Brown), it’s (Trinity San Antonio), (Laura Erikstrup), (Callie Cooper), (Ale’jah Douglas), the coaches, and they gave me the confidence.
“I can shoot wherever I can, wherever the line is. It doesn’t matter.”
Miller, who agreed with Durazo-Fresca, said she was exactly who they were looking for in the transfer portal. The GCU coach wanted a player who was a perceived threat on the court and could stretch the defense, and she has always been confident in her abilities to do so.
“I’m not surprised that she went 6-for-10 (shooting),” Miller said. “I see her every day in practice. I think 3-pointers are like layups to Alyssa.”
Durazo-Frescas’s confidence embodies the team’s overall belief on the court, especially on defense. The Lopes have reached double-digit steals for nearly every game this season and picked up another 12 against ASU.
GCU’s fan section might intimidate opponents with its never-ending energy, but the team’s pressure on defense has been fierce and consistent through “heart and effort,” Miller said.
“We’ve got a pretty special brand of defense, and we couldn’t run it unless (the players) were bought into it,” she said. “And I think for us, it’s pressure, but it’s also a unit.
“Those are the two things we really, really care about in our program, is the effort we play defense with, so I’m really proud of them.”
GCU graduate student guard/forward Tiarra Brown is the cornerstone of the defense. Against CSU Bakersfield, Brown started the season strong with 15 points and a team-leading five steals.
She maintained her consistency Thursday against the Sun Devils with 14 points and three steals. Having reliable athletes who know their role on the court will be crucial for GCU’s challenging regular-season schedule.
And for a GCU team looking for a Western Athletic Conference championship and an NCAA Tournament berth, the road ahead will only increase in difficulty. But as the Lopes put on display Thursday, the team’s 3-and-D mentality produces wins.
“We’ve learned early in the season what (a competitive game) feels like, how we need to come out and prepare for that, how we need to execute during those high-level games, the value of every possession,” Miller said. “Today, we got 12 (offensive rebounds), and I think those are extra chances for us. So, those little things that you learn in those big games. Hopefully, they trickle down, trickle down, and really, we have this tough nonconference schedule to prepare us for March.”
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