National Basketball Association
Louisville 79, Grand Canyon 70
When: 9:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 3, 2016
Where: Grand Canyon University Arena, Phoenix, Arizona
Officials:
# Darron George, # Mark Schnur, # Vladimir Voyard-Tadal
Attendance:
7493
By The Sports Xchange
PHOENIX -- The last time Louisville coach Rick Pitino came to Phoenix, his Cardinals beat teams fronted by Draymond Green and Bradley Beal en route to a 2012 Final Four berth after winning the NCAA West Regional.
But Pitino said he had never seen anything like the show put on by Grand Canyon Antelopes guard DeWayne Russell on Saturday, whose 42 points were not enough as the No. 14 Cardinals escaped with a 79-70 victory Saturday at the CGU Arena.
"That was the best guard performance I've seen against one of my teams since I've been coaching, forty-something years," Pitino said.
"We put everybody on him. We trapped him. He did it from mid-range, inside, 3-pointers. That was an awesome performance. We got more out of this game than any game we played this season, because we had to be tough to win this game."
After the 5-foot-11 Russell made an 18-footer to give Grand Canyon a 46-45 lead, the Cardinals (7-1) went on an 18-5 run to take control.
Forward Deng Adel scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half and forward V.J. King had 12 of his 14 points in the second half, and the Cardinals never led by fewer than nine points in the final nine minutes.
Adel had three layups and a 3-pointer and King had a layup and two free throws in the run.
"We just executed offensively great," Pitino said. "We ran some plays we thought we could disguise because of the way they were playing it. Our passing was great in the second half."
Russell made 14 of 27 field goal attempts and 3 of 6 3-pointers. No Antelope had scored more than 30 points since the school went to NCAA Division I status in 2013-14. He is averaging 27.8 points.
Pitino praised the offense sets run by Grand Canyon coach and former Phoenix Suns All-Star Dan Majerle.
"My guys did a great job of setting picks for DeWayne and DeWayne did a great job of making shots," said Majerle, in his fourth season. "Sets don't work if players don't make plays."
Russell missed the first two games of the season, including the opener at Duke, as part of the NCAA waiver he received when granted an extra year of eligibility this year.
"We had a great game plan," Russell said. "They told me where the traps were going to come from. I just tried to compete as best as I could. Coach Majerle has us pumped since eight o'clock this morning. We were ready to go."
Forward Ray Spalding had 14 points for the more athletic Cardinals, who had a 36-25 rebounding edge.
Cardinals 7-foot reserve Matz Stockman had 10 points, all in the first half. He had five points and had played 15 minutes in the first seven games this season.
Louisville played with 7-foot center Anas Mahmoud, who did not make the trip after suffering what Pitino called concussion symptoms after being struck by an elbow in a 71-64 victory over Purdue on Wednesday. Mahmoud is averaging 5.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 18.0 minutes.
NOTES: Grand Canyon played without second-leading scorer Josh Braun, who is to undergo knee surgery Tuesday but is hoping to return for WAC play, Majerle said. Braun is averaging 14.5 points a game. ... Grand Canyon hosted a team ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time in school history. It is 0-4 against Top 25 teams. Louisville won the first game of the series last season 111-63. ... Grand Canyon was picked to finish second in the Western Athletic Conference in the preseason polls.
Top Game Performances
| Louisville |
|
Grand Canyon |
|
Deng Adel 15 |
Scoring |
DeWayne Russell 42 |
|
Quentin Snider 4 |
Assists |
Shaq Carr 3 |
|
Mangok Mathiang 8 |
Rebounds |
Darion Clark 7 |
|
V.J. King 4 |
Free Throws Made |
DeWayne Russell 11 |
|
David Levitch 2 |
Steals |
Oscar Frayer 1 |
|
Mangok Mathiang 2 |
Blocks |
Oscar Frayer 2 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Louisville
|
79 |
47.5 |
5-15 |
16-19 |
15 |
33 |
4 |
5 |
10 |
| Grand Canyon
|
70 |
46.9 |
6-12 |
18-24 |
7 |
21 |
3 |
2 |
13 |
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