Texas Southern @ Gonzaga preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 10, 2018 ) Texas Southern 67, Gonzaga 104

Ninth-ranked Gonzaga attempts to bounce back from its first setback of the season when it hosts Texas Southern on Wednesday. The Bulldogs won by 25 or more points six times during an 8-0 start before suffering an 82-64 loss to Michigan in last Friday's Battle 4 Atlantis title game.

Gonzaga averages 84.6 points per game but it struggled to get into a flow offensively (shooting 40 percent) or defensively as Michigan connected on 54 percent of its attempts. "Every time we made a mental breakdown, they scored," Bulldogs coach Mark Few told reporters after the loss. "They literally made us pay on every one of our assignments that we screwed up -- a switch or we screwed up a coverage. And they made us pay, so they deserve a lot of credit for that." Gonzaga has topped 90 points four times this season and will look to rediscover its form against a Texas Southern team allowing 79.9 points per game. The Tigers are coming off a 76-73 win over Lamar on Saturday in their first home game of the season.

TV: 9 p.m. ET, ROOT (Gonzaga)

ABOUT TEXAS SOUTHERN (2-5): Senior guard Tyrik Armstrong has scored in double digits in all seven games after scoring 17 versus Lamar and he leads the team in scoring (14.0), assists (3.6) and steals (15 total). "He's definitely continuing to improve and showing some really good signs of making things happen for us on the floor," Tigers coach Johnny Jones told the Houston Chronicle. "He's played a lot of minutes for us and he's done a much better job getting his teammates involved." Sophomore forward John Walker III tallied a career-best 20 points against Lamar and is averaging 16 points over the past two games after scoring at a 3.6 clip over the first five games.

ABOUT GONZAGA (8-1): The Bulldogs were dealing with various ailments after the three games in three days stretch in the Bahamas as senior shooting guard Admon Gilder and senior point guard Ryan Woolridge both departed the Michigan game in the second half due to knee injuries and freshman forward Anton Watson (ankle) missed the final two-plus games of the tournament. Senior forward Killian Tillie scored a season-high 20 points against Michigan but he sat out the first game of the tournament when his surgically repaired knee swelled up. Sophomore forward Filip Petrusev is the club's leading scorer (16.1) and rebounder (8.7) and also has a team-best 13 blocked shots.

TIP-INS

1. Gonzaga won the previous four meetings by an average of 36.7 points, including a 104-67 victory last season.

2. Bulldogs junior forward Corey Kispert has scored 20 or more points three times and six or fewer on four other occasions.

3. The Tigers are committing an average of 18.6 turnovers per game.

PREDICTION: Gonzaga 93, Texas Southern 61