Zags Set to Battle Texas Southern
Finals week has arrived at Gonzaga University, but that doesn’t prevent the Zags from playing great basketball! Gonzaga is set to take on Texas Southern for the last game until break.
Gonzaga is coming off of an impressive win over UCLA and are set to continue rolling. The Zags have yet to lose at home and Texas Southern is 0-7 on the road this season. The Tigers are 1-7 on the season overall.
The Tigers are led by junior forward, Chris Thomas who leads the team in scoring with 16.1 points per game. He also leads the team in rebounding with 5.4 boards per game. Gonzaga will have a definite height advantage as the Tigers’ tallest players are senior forwards, Jason Carter and Nick Shepherd who both come in at 6′ 9″.
Dec 12, 2014; Gainesville, FL, USA; Texas Southern Tigers forward Chris Thomas (2) shoots a layup over Florida Gators guard Eli Carter (1) during the second half at Stephen C. O
Gonzaga’s big men have been playing at an exceptional level lately. Przemek Karnowski is proving the critics wrong and showing that he has the skills to be a dominant post presence at the college level and possibly play at the professional level in the future. Over the past three games he has racked up 42 points, 23 rebounds, and 6 assists.
Lately Gonzaga has had a big 3 of their own developing. Przemek Karnowski, Byron Wesley, and Kyle Wiltjer have been dominating lately. I expect this to continue.
I will be watching for Karnowski’s reign of terror to continue against Texas Southern. I will also look for Domantas Sabonis and Kyle Wiltjer to play well and take advantage of their size against a far smaller opponent.
I expect Silas Melson and Domantas Sabonis to have extended playing time in this game. This is a great opportunity (especially for Melson who hasn’t had much playing time so far) for the young players to get some more experience. I would also like to see Angel Nunez play a bit more in this game as he has only played for 7 minutes in the past 3 games.
The game is on Monday, December 14 at 6 PM PT.
The game will be broadcast on ROOT.