For the second straight year, the Grand Canyon men's basketball team came one win away from earning its first-ever NCAA Tournament bid.
And for the second straight year, it was top-seeded New Mexico State that dashed the Lopes' dream.
New Mexico State routed GCU 89-57 in Saturday night's WAC Tournament championship game at the Orleans Arena to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Aggies, who won all three of their matchups with GCU this season, defeated the Lopes 72-58 in last year's championship game in the same venue.
Everything went right for the Lopes in the first five minutes of Saturday's game, as they jumped out to a 10-2 lead and had the thousands of Lopes fans in attendance on their feet. But it was all Aggies, who won their 19th straight game, the rest of the way. NMSU out-shot, out-rebounded and out-defended GCU, to the delight of the NMSU fans who made the trip from Las Cruces.
Junior guard Carlos Johnson, who scored career highs in the Lopes' wins in the WAC Tournament quarterfinals and semifinals -- 66 total points in the two games -- was held to nine points on 3 of 9 shooting Saturday.
GCU shot just 7 of 30 from 3-point range, NMSU went 17 of 39 from beyond the arc.
Coached by former Phoenix Suns star Dan Majerle, GCU is in its sixth year at the NCAA Division I level, but this was just its second season of NCAA Tournament eligibility. Saturday's result means the Lopes will have to wait at least one more season to punch their first-ever ticket to the Big Dance.
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