Gonzaga women play last

Gonzaga picked the prime-time spot in the first round of the West Coast Conference Sunday and will play the last of four games Thursday night at McCarthey Athletic Center.

The Bulldogs (16-13 overall, 11-3 WCC) play San Francisco (8-19, 4-10) at approximately 8:15.

Gonzaga tied for the WCC title with Santa Clara but are seeded second behind the Broncos because of the tiebreaker.

That allowed Santa Clara first choice of game-time, and the Broncos (17-10, 11-3) chose 6 p.m. to take on eight-seeded Portland (4-23, 1-13).

Gonzaga faces the same San Francisco team it defeated 71-53 on Saturday to clinch a piece of its second straight league title. The game will tip-off 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Santa Clara/Portland game.

The tournament begins at noon with third-seeded Loyola Marymount (16-11, 10-4) taking on No. 6 San Diego (9-18, 4-10), followed by No. 4 Pepperdine (11-16, 8-6) taking on No. 5 Saint Mary’s (12-15, 7-7).

The first two games of the WCC men’s tournament are Friday night, so the women’s semifinals are Saturday afternoon with the first game at noon. The teams will be re-seeded following Thursday’s games with the highest remaining seed getting the lowest remaining seed, and the high seed picking its preferred tip-off time.

The championship game is set for 1 p.m. Sunday and will be shown on tape delay at 5 p.m. on ESPNU.

This is the first time the WCC Tournaments have been in Spokane. They are scheduled for Portland next season before returning to California.

Gonzaga went 14-0 in the WCC last year but lost the tournament championship game to third-seeded Santa Clara, which was hosting the tournament.