Grand Canyon will be happy to say goodbye to February.

The Antelopes are leaving Seattle with a split with the Redhawks after Saturday’s 81-71 victory that kept them in first place in the Western Athletic Conference at 8-2.

It was just GCU’s second win in four games since coming out of a 19-day COVID-19 quarantine break, avenging Friday night’s 63-57 loss to the same Redhawk team.

GCU (14-5) played only four games in February, going 2-2. Last week, they split two games with California Baptist.

“I’m really proud of the guys and their response,” coach Bryce Drew said in his post-game radio interview. “February has not been a good month to us. The 19-day break. The COVID situation. Players not getting practice time.

“We had some personal things going on. Guys had to leave. So we have not been together very much for any extended period of time. And we really haven’t played well in February. This was by far the best 30 minutes we played this month, the last 30.”

They finish the regular season at home next Friday and Saturday with games against Utah Valley with a chance to gain the No. 1 seed in the WAC Tournament for the first time in their NCAA Division I history.

Both teams have clinched the top two spots, which gives them a first-round bye and puts them in the WAC Tournament semifinals on March 12 in Las Vegas. GCU will have to sweep the Wolverines to give the Lopes the outright regular-season WAC title.

They needed a bounce-back performance from guards Jovan Blacksher Jr., and Mikey Dixon after they combined to make 3 of 21 shots on Friday.

Blacksher had 17 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Dixon had 14 points and hit 3 of 6 3-pointers.

That took some of the pressure off of big men Asbjorn Midtgaard (16 points, 16 rebounds) and Alessandro Lever (14 points, 2 of 3 3-pointers).

Fifty-three of Seattle’s points came from Darrion Trammell (28 points) and Riley Grigsby (25).

The ‘Lopes shot a meager 4-13 from behind the arc in the second half but still managed to shoot 14-28 from the field and muscled their way to a 42-21 rebound advantage.

“We moved the ball well,” Drew said. “We spaced it. We were able to Ash (Midtgaard) a few more touches down there to get the free throws when he was getting fouled. We were pleased with our overall effort at both ends of the court tonight.”

Seattle (10-9, 3-4) trailed 65-48 with 6:41 left, but chipped away at the deficit and pulled to within 73-68 with 1:16 to play.

Blacksher made 6 of 6 free throws in the final 49 seconds to seal it.

This time, GCU didn’t let Seattle get on a roll to start the second half. The Lopes got down by 16 points Friday night in the second half, closed to within one, but couldn’t get over the hump.

This time, they started the second half strong and kept the pressure on the Redhawks with the 7-foot Midtgaard collecting his fifth consecutive double-double.

“We remembered last night,” Midtgaard said. “We didn’t want to have that feeling after the game again, especially when you have to get back on the plane for couple of hours to go back to Phoenix.

“We were just determined to win.”