Bracket and game times for WCC Championships announced

2013 WCC Basketball Championships Bracket

SAN BRUNO, Calif. – The West Coast Conference has announced the brackets and game times for the 2013 WCC Basketball Championships at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.  The tournament will begin with a women’s first round match-up at 3 p.m. PST on Wednesday, March 6, and continue through the men’s championship game on Monday, March 11. 

Ranked No. 2 nationally, Gonzaga and the second seed Saint Mary’s Gaels earn byes into the conference semifinals on Saturday evening. BYU, the third seed, and No. 4 Santa Clara each earn a bye to the quarterfinals and will take the floor on Friday night. San Francisco and San Diego finished with identical conference marks, split the head-to-head series, and had the exact same record against each WCC opponent. The Dons have earned the five seed due to the RPI tiebreaker, making San Diego the six. Pepperdine (seven), Portland (eight), and Loyola Marymount (nine) wrap up the men’s bracket.

On the women’s side, Gonzaga posted a 15-1 conference mark, capturing its ninth straight WCC regular season crown. The Bulldogs will occupy the top seed. With a 12-4 WCC record, San Diego finished in second place, and will open play in Saturday’s semifinals. Saint Mary’s and BYU are seeded third and fourth, respectively, opening in Friday’s quarterfinal round. Loyola Marymount earned the fifth seed, with Santa Clara in the sixth spot. Portland (seven), San Francisco (eight), and Pepperdine (nine) round out the women’s bracket.

The 2013 West Coast Conference Basketball Championships get underway at 3 p.m. on Wednesday with a pair of opening round games. Women’s action tips off the tournament as No. 8 San Francisco faces ninth seed Pepperdine. At 6 p.m., the men’s tournament begins when No. 8 Portland battles No. 9 Loyola Marymount. 

For the first time, all 16 games from the 2013 West Coast Conference Championships will be nationally televised. Wednesday’s opening round and Thursday’s second round men’s and women’s action will be televised live on BYUtv. Available in well over 60 million homes nationwide via cable and satellite, BYUtv will also televise the women’s quarterfinals and semifinals. BYUtv is also available in HD via live streaming and video on-demand, smart phone apps, and Roku or Google TV devices.

The men’s quarterfinals will be once again televised on ESPNU, with the men’s semis airing nationally on ESPN2. On Monday, the women’s championship game will be shown nationwide at 1 p.m. on ESPNU. Later that evening, at 6 p.m., the West Coast Conference men’s championship game will air live on ESPN.

The men’s and women’s winners of the 2013 West Coast Conference Basketball Championships will each receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

All games times listed are Pacific Time.