PHOENIX – Southeast Missouri (0-1) dropped its season-opener to Western Athletic Conference member Grand Canyon University (1-0), 88-67, Monday night at GCU Arena.
 
Tyon Grant-Foster scored a game-high 30 points for GCU, which led the entire game.
 
GCU shot 23 free throws and used a 17-3 advantage at the charity stripe to key a 54-30 halftime lead.
 
The Lopes started out of the gate with a 14-2 run in the opening four minutes of the contest and never turned back.
 
Braxton Stacker's alley-oop dunk off a pass from Aquan Smart was SEMO's first points of the year and Adam Larson gave the Redhawks a nice lift off the bench scoring 10 points in his first 11 minutes.
 
Larson's layup ended a stretch of 11-consecutive points by the Lopes and he later buried a pair of 3-pointers en route to reaching double-digits for the sixth time in his career.
 
GCU shot 50 percent (16-of-32) from the field and knocked down five 3-pointers in the opening stanza. Grant-Foster scored 21 of his points in the first 20 minutes of play. 
 
Rob Martin's 3-pointer cut the Lopes' lead to 19 (67-48) with 9:20 left in the contest, but that was as close as the Redhawks would get.
 
SEMO played better in the second half, where it edged GCU, 37-34.
 
Larson led the Redhawks with 13 points. He shot 4-of-6 from the field with three of his makes coming from long range. Josh Earley followed with 10 points, while TJ Biel and Stacker added eight apiece. Kobe Clark, who played for the first time since the middle of January last season, finished with seven points and four rebounds.
 
As a team, the Redhawks made 11 three-pointers. Four players, including Earley, Stacker, Biel and Martin made their first career starts at SEMO.
 
SEMO returns to action at Butler on Nov. 10.