West Virginia meets No. 3 Gonzaga in Wednesday Afternoon Battle 4 Atlantis Clash

On By Littum

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The 12-game, three-day Battle 4 Atlantis tournament on Paradise Island in the Bahamas begins with four games on Wednesday, November 27.

Louisville and 16thth-ranked Indiana tips off at noon, followed by West Virginia’s game against third-ranked Gonzaga at 2:30 p.m

The evening session features Oklahoma and Providence at 17.00 before concluding with Davidson and 17th-ranked Arizona at 7:30 p.m

The Gonzaga-West Virginia winner will face the Indiana-Louisville winner at noon Thursday, then the Oklahoma-Providence and Arizona-Davidson winners will meet. The championship and consolation games will be played on Friday.

The Mountaineers were scheduled to play in the 2020 Battle 4 Atlantis, but COVID-19 forced the tournament to be moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where WVU won the tournament, which was renamed the Bad Boys Mowers Crossover Classic.

“I love (midseason tournaments),” West Virginia coach Darian DeVries said last week. “It’s an opportunity, in this particular case, to play in a tournament context, and we’ll see how they respond to playing three games in three days, which is equivalent to post-conference tournaments.

“You can get an idea of, ‘At some point guys, this is what it’s going to be in March, where you’re going to have to play one night, another night and a third night.’ It gives you an early look at some of those things,” DeVries said.

Wednesday afternoon’s contest against coach Mark Few’s Bulldogs will be West Virginia’s first regular season game in the Bahamas and its sixth all-time meeting against Gonzaga. The Bulldogs claimed the first in the opening round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament in Pittsburgh, and the two also met in an NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 matchup in San Jose, California, where the Zags rallied for a 61–58 triumph.

Gonzaga’s other wins against West Virginia came in Spokane in 2013, in Morgantown a year later and in the 2020 Jimmy V Classic in Indianapolis.

This year’s Gonzaga squad has won its five games by an average of 32.2 points, including a 38-point win over Baylor in the season opener and an eight-point triumph against Arizona State a game later.

More recently, the Bulldogs are coming off a 59-point win over UMass-Lowell, a 13-point win over San Diego State and a 43-point win over Long Beach State.

Graham Ike, a 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward, leads a balanced Gonzaga offense averaging 14.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.

Guard Khalif Battle, a 6-foot-5, 185-pound graduate student, is averaging 14.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. game, while senior point guard Ryan Nembhard (12.2 ppg.) and senior off-guard Nolan Hickman (11.2 ppg.) are also averaging double figures.

Michael Ajayi, another senior, rounds out Few’s four-guard lineup, averaging 6.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.

Last Wednesday, West Virginia increased its record to 3-1 with an 86-43 victory over Iona at the WVU Coliseum. Older guard Javon little one led the Mountaineers with 23 points. WVU shot 51.8% and limited Iona to just 23.7% on 14 of 59 from the floor.

Small now leads the Mountaineers with an average of 15.5 points per game and is one of four guards expected to start Wednesday against the Zags.

The others are Tucker DeVriesa 6-foot-7 senior averaging 13.5 points, Toby Okania 6-foot-8 senior averaged 6.5 points, and Sencire Harrisa 6-foot-4 sophomore averaging 4.3 points.

Amani Hansberrya 6-foot-8, 240-pound sophomore, is expected to round out the starting lineup and is averaging 9.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.

Freshman guard Jonathan Powell has been WVU’s most prolific scorer off the bench, averaging 12 points per game. match. Powell scored all 11 of his points against Iona during a four-minute stretch in the first half.

“For us, we’re most likely going to see three different teams,” DeVries explained. “From a learning opportunity, you’re going to see teams that really post it, we’re going to see teams that play well in transition or we’re going to see some zone defense, so that’s going to really challenge our team.”

Wednesday’s game will be televised nationally on ESPN with Beth Mowins and Debbie Antonelli handling the call.

Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi and Brad Howe will be broadcast on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.

ESPN will televise the winner’s bracket games, while the loser’s bracket contests will be shown on ESPN2.