WCC men’s and women’s tournament bracket set

The Gonzaga women will play Thursday and the men on Saturday in their openers at the West Coast Conference basketball tournaments at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

The tournament will begin with a women’s opening-round matchup at noon Thursday and continue through the men’s championship game on March 8. All 17 games will be televised and streamed online.

There are four women’s games Thursday, with fifth-seeded Gonzaga taking on No. 4 Santa Clara at 8 p.m. in the day’s finale.

Friday opens with two women’s quarterfinals followed by the men’s opening-round game between the eight and nine seeds: Loyola Marymount and San Diego.

Saturday is devoted to the four men’s basketball quarterfinals, including the matchup between No. 2 Gonzaga and No. 9 Portland in the 9 p.m. game.

There will be no games on Sunday with the tournament resuming with women’s and men’s semifinals on Monday, March 7. The two champions will be crowned on Tuesday, March 8.

Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga finished as the WCC men’s basketball regular-season co-champions with identical 15-3 records, but the Gaels claimed the top seed with a season sweep over the Bulldogs. BYU took third place with a 13-5 mark for the second consecutive season.

Pepperdine is the fourth seed, and will open tournament play against fifth seed San Francisco in Saturday’s quarterfinal round. Santa Clara claimed the sixth seed and will take on BYU in the quarterfinal.

Portland and Loyola Marymount tied with identical 6-12 records, but the Pilots claim the seventh seed with a season sweep over the Lions. Portland will face Gonzaga in the quarterfinals while Loyola Marymount will square off against ninth-seeded San Diego in Thursday’s opening-round game.

On the women’s side, BYU posted a 16-2 conference mark, capturing its first WCC regular-season crown. With a 14-4 WCC record, Saint Mary’s finished in second place. San Diego and Santa Clara tied at 13-5 with the Toreros taking the third seed via a tiebreaking win over BYU.

No. 5 Gonzaga finished 10-8, while San Francisco is the sixth seed at 9-9. San Diego plays San Francisco and Santa Clara takes on Gonzaga in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Loyola Marymount (seven), Pacific (eight), Pepperdine (nine) and Portland (10) round out the women’s bracket, and will start tournament play on Thursday in the opening round.

Women

Thursday

No. 8 Pacific vs. No. 9 Pepperdine, noon.

No. 7 Loyola Marymount vs. No. 10 Portland, 2 p.m.

No. 3 San Diego vs. No. 6 San Francisco, 6 p.m.

No. 4 Santa Clara vs. No. 5 Gonzaga, 8 p.m.

Friday

No. 1 BYU vs. No. 8/9, noon.

No. 2 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 7/10, 2 p.m.

March 7

Women’s semifinal No. 1, noon.

Women’s semifinal No. 2, 2 p.m.

March 8

Women’s championship game, 1 p.m.

Men

Friday

No. 8 Loyola Marymount vs. No. 9 San Diego, 6 p.m.

Saturday

No. 3 BYU vs. No 6 Santa Clara, 1 p.m.

No. 4 Pepperdine vs. No. 5 San Francisco, 3 p.m.

No. 1 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 8/9, 7 p.m.

No. 2 Gonzaga vs. No. 7 Portland, 9 p.m.

March 7

Men’s semifinal No. 1, 6 p.m.

Men’s semifinal No. 2, 8:30 p.m.

March 8

Men’s Championship Game, 6 p.m.