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

Louisville and 16^ThFirst-place Indiana kicks off at 12 p.m., followed by West Virginia’s game against third-place Gonzaga at 2:30 p.m

The evening session includes Oklahoma and Providence at 5 p.m. before concluding with Davidson and 17^ThArizona at 7:30 p.m

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

The Mountaineers were scheduled to compete 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. “In this particular case, it’s an opportunity to play in a tournament environment and we can see how they react by playing three games in three days, which is similar to post-conference tournaments.”

“You can imagine, ‘At some point, guys, it’ll be in March, you’ve got to play one night, a second night, and a third night.’ “It gives you a first look at some of these 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 sixth meeting against Gonzaga ever. The Bulldogs picked up their first win in the opening round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament in Pittsburgh, and the two also met in a Sweet 16 match of the NCAA Tournament in San Jose, California, with the Zags winning a 61-58 won victory.

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

This year’s Gonzaga team 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 over Arizona State a game later.

Most recently, the Bulldogs posted 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-1, 220-pound forward, leads a balanced Gonzaga attack, averaging 14.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.

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

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. Senior security guard Javon Small 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 who averaged 6.5 points, and Sencire Harrisa 6-foot-4 sophomore who averaged 4.3 points.

Amani Hansberrya 6-foot, 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 was WVU’s most productive scorer after coming off the bench, averaging 12 points per game. Powell scored all 11 points in a four-minute span against Iona in the first half.

“For us, we will most likely see three different teams,” DeVries explained. “In a learning opportunity, you’re going to see teams that really come through, we’re going to see teams that play great in transition, or we’re going to see some zone defenses, so it’s going to be a real challenge for our team.”

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

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

ESPN televises the winning games while the losing games air on ESPN2.