Several GU items of interest. Bulldogs forward Kelly Olynyk scored in double figures twice this week for Canada at the FIBA Americas Championship in Argentina. Here's a link to Olynyk's stats throughout the tournament. He's fifth in scoring and third in rebounding for Canada, which is 2-5 in Group X standings and saw its Olympic hopes dashed by a loss to Panama.

Battle in Seattle pre-sale tickets for Spokane residents and members of the State Farm Battle in Seattle mailing list go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster outlets (three Fred Meyer locations in Spokane, Veradale). More here and at ticketmaster.com. Gonzaga will face Arizona, which advanced to the Elite Eight last year and is 3-0 against the Bulldogs all time, at KeyArena.

UPDATE: CBS will televise the Battle in Seattle, which tips at 1 on Saturday, Dec. 17.

Santa Clara, which appeared to be positioned to challenge Gonzaga, Saint Mary's and BYU at the top of the WCC, lost senior forward Marc Trasolini to a torn ACL in an exhibition contest in his home province of B.C. More here and here.

Back with a feature on junior guard Marquise Carter, who has been one of the primary reasons for Gonzaga's surge to a co-WCC title and conference championship. This will run in Tuesday's S-R, but here's a story link with more from Carter, his teammates and coach Mark Few on how the J.C. transfer turned around his season, and helped Gonzaga do the same.

Also, just received notice from Gonzaga's sports information department that GU has sold out its allotment of tickets for Thursday's game in Denver.

When I saw majority owner Brady Nelson at the first Shock practice Saturday, I asked him how many tickets had been sold for the outdoor game. The announcement for the game, set for July 9th at Albi Stadium, was Thursday and it was a quick turnaround for season-ticket holders, who had the first opportunity to purchase tickets Friday-Sunday.

Over a 1,000, Nelson said, adding that he was pleased considering season ticket-holders essentially only had 12-hour notice before tickets went on sale.

By Monday morning, that figure was 1,500. Reserve seats are close to being sold out. Tickets went on sale to the general public this morning at 10.

Game time, by the way, will be 5 p.m.

Anyone interested in purchasing tickets to No. 1-ranked Eastern Washington’s second-round Football Championship Subdivision playoff game against SE Missouri State at Roos Field can find details here.

A quick post on Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne’s visit Friday and additional tickets becoming available for the GU-Oklahoma game on Dec. 31st at the Arena.

More below.

NCAA tournament tickets for games at the South Regional, including Gonzaga-North Carolina, go on sale Wednesday morning. More here.

Tickets will go on sale Friday for the Spokane-Arkansas preseason game. The Twisters are coached by ex-Shock head coach Chris Siegfried and feature former Spokane QB Kyle Rowley. (The two are pictured above.) 

More here.