Uncharted territory: No. 13 Gonzaga looks to halt relegation against Nicholls | National

Uncharted territory: No. 13 Gonzaga looks to halt relegation against Nicholls | National

Gonzaga has lost consecutive games for the first time in six years.

The No. 13 Bulldogs will look to avoid that rare occurrence when they face Nicholls on Wednesday night in Spokane, Washington.

Gonzaga (7-3) is winless this month. The Bulldogs lost 90-89 in overtime to then-No. 4 Kentucky on Dec. 7 in Seattle and then fell 77-71 to UConn last Saturday in New York.

In December 2018, Gonzaga lost to unranked Tennessee and then-No. 12 North Carolina during a seven-day span when Rui Hachimura and Brandon Clarke were the team’s star players.

Current star big man Graham Ike recorded season highs of 28 points and 11 rebounds in the game against Kentucky. But against UConn, he ran into foul trouble early and had just three points and no boards in 12 minutes.

“That’s exactly what the game was like,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of Ike’s struggles. “It was a physical, hard-fought game.”

Michael Ajayi, a transfer from Pepperdine, made all six of his field goal attempts and scored 14 points. The rest of the Bulldogs combined to shoot 37.3 percent (19 of 51) from the field.

“Yeah, we missed some shots that we’re going to take,” Few said. “The ones on the fringes, I think we’re going to do a very, very high percentage of them.”

Khalif Battle scored 21 points against UConn and sank his first five free throws to push his streak to 35 in a row this season. He missed the second of two shots with 23 seconds left in the race.

Battle leads the Bulldogs with a scoring average of 14.2, just ahead of Ike (14.1). Braden Huff (11.8), Ryan Nembhard (11.4) and Nolan Hickman (10.1) also scored in double figures.

Nembhard leads the nation with 10.3 assists per game. He has 103 with just 17 turnovers.

The game against Nicholls will be Gonzaga’s first home game since an 84-41 win over Long Beach State on Nov. 20.

The Colonels (7-4) are riding a five-game winning streak when they arrive in the Pacific Northwest.

Nicholls defeated Southern-New Orleans 110-66 on Dec. 10 in its last contest.

Prior to this contest, the Colonels had won their last three games by a total of seven points.

The toughest opponents Nicholls faced that season were New Mexico and then-No. 17 Cincinnati. In the season opener, the host Lobos defeated the Colonels 91-84.

The visit to Cincinnati wasn’t close in the slightest as the Bearcats defeated the Nicholls 86-49.

Against Southern-New Orleans, Robert Brown III scored a season-best 28 points and Sincere Malone scored a career-best 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting off the bench.

Byron Ireland leads the Colonels with a scoring average of 13.2. Brown (11.4) and Jamal West Jr. (10.4) also average double figures.

Nicholls went 20-14 last season in Tevon Saddler’s first season as coach. Before the season, Saddler was confident the Colonels would have another strong season.

“I think we have a chance to be really special,” Saddler said. “I’m always ready to work and I think special things are coming.”

This is the first meeting between the schools.

–Field level media

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