Field Level Media
Dec 23, 2020
McKinley Wright IV had 21 points and seven rebounds, Evan Battey added 16 points and Colorado pulled away late to beat Grand Canyon 74-64 in the Far West Classic on Tuesday night at Las Vegas.
Jeriah Horne added 12 points for Colorado (6-1), which has won four in a row.
Jovan Blacksher Jr. led Grand Canyon with 17 points. Asbjorn Midtgaard chipped in with 16 points and nine rebounds, and Sean Miller-Moore added 12 points. The Antelopes (4-3) have dropped three in a row.
The Buffaloes went into halftime tied after failing to score in the final five minutes. After the break, Horne and D'Shawn Schwartz hit 3-pointers in a 12-4 run that gave Colorado a 39-31 lead.
Grand Canyon responded with a run of its own to cut the deficit to 43-41 on a 3-pointer by Miller-Moore. The Buffaloes answered with an 8-2 run to push the advantage to 57-48, their largest lead of the game to that point, with 8:02 left.
The Antelopes didn't go away. Midtgaard hit a jumper and Blacksher sank two free throws and a bucket to get Grand Canyon within three. Wright's three-point play broke the streak, but Blacksher hit a 3-pointer and Miller-Moore made a layup to slice the deficit to 60-59 and force a Colorado timeout with 5:16 left.
The Buffaloes came out strong out of the timeout while the Antelopes went cold. Horne drained a 3-pointer, Wright split a pair of free throws and then hit a jumper to give Colorado a 66-59 lead with 4:11 remaining. Grand Canyon then committed two turnovers that the Buffaloes turned into points and an 11-point lead.
Midtgaard's jumper got the deficit under double digits, but the Antelopes never got closer than nine in the final minutes.
Colorado led by six after Battey's 3-pointer with 5:16 left in the first half but went scoreless the rest of the way. The Antelopes were able to tie it on Alessandro Lever's two free throws to make it 27-27 at the break.
--Field Level Media