California Baptist (10-8, 4-5) vs. Grand Canyon (13-3, 7-0)
Grand Canyon University Arena, Phoenix; Saturday, 9 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Grand Canyon looks for its ninth straight conference win against California Baptist. Grand Canyon’s last WAC loss came against the Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros 88-80 on Feb. 29, 2020. California Baptist fell 71-61 at Grand Canyon in its last outing.
SENIOR STUDS: Grand Canyon has relied heavily on its seniors this year. Asbjorn Midtgaard, Jovan Blacksher Jr., Alessandro Lever, Oscar Frayer and Mikey Dixon have combined to account for 69 percent of the team’s scoring this year and 79 percent of all Antelopes points over the last five games.
DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS: The Antelopes have allowed only 59.4 points per game to WAC opponents so far, an improvement from the 65.3 per game they allowed in non-conference play.
FUELING THE OFFENSE: Ty Rowell has either made or assisted on 45 percent of all California Baptist field goals over the last three games. The senior guard has accounted for 16 field goals and 18 assists in those games.
STREAK SCORING: Grand Canyon has won its last five home games, scoring an average of 85 points while giving up 57.
ASSIST DISTRIBUTION: The Lancers have recently created baskets via assists more often than the Antelopes. Grand Canyon has 46 assists on 77 field goals (59.7 percent) over its past three outings while California Baptist has assists on 49 of 76 field goals (64.5 percent) during its past three games.
GETTING DEFENSIVE: The steady Grand Canyon defense has held opponents to 61.3 points per game, the 11th-lowest mark in Division I. California Baptist has allowed an average of 72.7 points through 18 games (ranking the Lancers 213th).
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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com
