(Editor’s note: Gonzaga media release)
SAN BRUNO, Calif. – The West Coast Conference has announced the brackets and game times for the 2018 Gorilla Glue WCC Basketball Championships at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The tournament will begin with a women’s opening round match-up at 12:00 p.m. PST on Thursday, March 1 and continue through the championship game on Tuesday, March 6. All games will be televised live nationwide, and will be streamed on-line.
Thursday, March 1 features a full day of women’s basketball action. Seeds 7-10 will play in the tournament’s two opening round games followed by the first two of four women’s quarterfinals.
Friday, March 2 opens with two women’s quarterfinals followed by two men’s opening round games between seeds 7-10. Saturday, March 3 is devoted to the four men’s basketball quarterfinals.
There will be no games on Sunday, March 4, and the tournament resumes with women’s and men’s semifinals on Monday, March 5. The two champions will be crowned on Tuesday, March 6.
On the women’s side, Gonzaga claimed the regular season championship with a conference-record 17 wins, going 17-1 on the year. Saint Mary’s claims the second-seed with a 13-5 record.
BYU and Loyola Marymount each finished with identical 11-7 records, but the Cougars earn the third-seed due to a season sweep against the Lions. BYU plays sixth-seed San Diego in Thursday’s quarterfinal while the Lions will face fifth-seeded San Francisco.
Pacific (seven), Pepperdine (eight), Santa Clara (nine) and Portland (10) round out the women’s bracket, and will start tournament play on Thursday afternoon in the opening round.
For the fifth straight year, every game from the 2018 Gorilla Glue West Coast Conference Championships will be nationally televised. Twelve games can be seen live in well over 60 million homes nationwide via cable and satellite on BYUtv. Those games – including eight women’s games and the first four men’s games – will also be streamed live on TheW.tv, the West Coast Conference’s digital platform.
On Tuesday, the women’s championship game will be shown nationwide at 1 p.m. on ESPNU. All ESPN Networks telecasts can also be seen live on WatchESPN.
The winners of the 2018 Gorilla Glue West Coast Conference Basketball Championships will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Tournament schedule
Thursday, March 1
No. 8 Pepperdine vs. No. 9 Santa Clara, 12:00 p.m. (BYUtv, TheW.tv)
No. 7 Pacific vs. No. 10 Portland, 2:00 p.m. (BYUtv, TheW.tv)
No. 3 BYU vs. No. 6 San Diego, 6:00 p.m. (BYUtv, TheW.tv)
No. 4 Loyola Marymount vs. No. 5 San Francisco, 8:00 p.m. (BYUtv, TheW.tv)
Friday, March 2
No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 8/9, 12:00 p.m. (BYUtv, TheW.tv)
No. 2 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 7/10, 2:00 p.m. (BYUtv, TheW.tv)
Monday, March 5
Women’s Semifinal No. 1, 12:00 p.m. (BYUtv, TheW.tv)
Women’s Semifinal No. 2, 2:00 p.m. (BYUtv, TheW.tv)
Tuesday, March 6
Women’s Championship Game, 1:00 p.m. (ESPNU, WatchESPN)
