Incarnate Word @ Gonzaga preview

Incarnate Word at Gonzaga

Lodged between three games in the PK80 Motion Invitational and its upcoming contests in the Jesuit Basketball and Jimmy V Classics, Gonzaga hosts the University of Incarnate Word on Wednesday night. The 14th-ranked Bulldogs are coming off back-to-back overtime games and a third-place finish in the PK80 Motion Invite while the Cardinals will playing their second road game of the season.

Gonzaga brought a 3-0 record into PK80 play in Portland and opened its eight-team bracket with an 86-59 rout of Ohio State. The Bulldogs then dropped a 111-105 double-overtime thriller to No. 6 Florida in the semifinals before bouncing back with a 76-71 overtime win over Texas in Sunday’s third-place game. Gonzaga used a 24-0 first-half run to build a 21-point lead against the Longhorns, but Texas stormed back to force overtime before the Bulldogs won the extra period 9-4. “We feel like we should have went 3-0 in this thing, but we also think we represented ourselves great,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said Sunday in his post-game news conference. “We competed at the highest level. I walk out of here knowing we can play with anybody in the country now, and we did not know that coming in.”

TV: 9 p.m. ET, ROOT Sports

ABOUT UIW (3-2): The Cardinals, of the Southland Conference, are in their second full season as a Division I member, and after opening the season with three home wins over Division III opponents, UIW has dropped back-to-back games against Loyola Marymount (91-87) and Houston (97-58). Forward Simi Socks is leading the way with 14.6 points per game, while Charles Brown III (14.0), Christian Peevy (14.0) and guard Shawn Johnson (10.6) also are averaging double figures with the latter pulling down a team-best 6.8 rebounds. The Cardinals went to Houston shooting 45.9 percent from the field and averaging 88.8 points but shot 32.3 percent while failing to score at least 60 points for the first time in their last 29 games.

ABOUT GONZAGA (5-1): Few’s Bulldogs entered the season with question marks after bringing back only two starters and six letterwinners from last season’s national runner-up squad, but they’ve impressed so far in shooting 50.1 percent from the field, averaging 91.5 points and outrebounding the opposition by an average of 7.7 per game. All five starters are averaging in double figures, led by senior forward Johnathan Williams (17.2), who scored a career-high 39 points in the loss to Florida and was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Week on Monday after being selected to the PK80 all-tournament team a day earlier. Williams also is averaging a team-best 7.2 rebounds and is complemented nicely by guard Josh Perkins (15.5 points, team-best 4.8 assists), who is 25-of-47 from 3-point range so far after connecting on 14-of-23 in the three PK80 games.

TIP-INS

1. This will be the first meeting between the teams, and Gonzaga is 3-0 all-time against Southland Conference foes.

2. Sophomore F Rui Hachimura is contributing 9.3 points and 5.5 rebounds as the Bulldogs’ sixth man, and had a career-high 20 points and nine rebounds Sunday versus Texas.

3. Gonzaga has held 62 straight opponents under 50 percent shooting from the field and have shot better than the opposition in 50 of its last 51 contests, with the lone exception being North Carolina in the national championship game.

PREDICTION: Gonzaga 96, UIW 66