The Zappos.com West Coast Conference Basketball Tournament heads into day two on Thursday evening at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. A day after eighth seeded Portland knocked out ninth seeded Santa Clara, the second round brings in the first "bye teams." The entire tournament is available through live streaming, with ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU picking up the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals (in reverse order).
The No. 5 seed San Francisco Dons (18-12, 8-8) will meet the No. 8 seed Portland Pilots (7-23, 3-13) at 6 p.m. PST. The other second round matchup features the No. 6 seed San Diego Toreros (12-17, 7-9) meeting the No. 7 seed Pepperdine Waves (10-18, 4-12) 30 minutes after the conclusion of USF-Portland. Both games will be broadcast on BYUtv and live streamed on ESPN3.com.
The Dons enter the WCC tournament on a fairly strong run. They are 3-3 in their last six, but they knocked off Gonzaga and gave Saint Mary's a tough battle at War Memorial Gym in San Francisco. After a solid run through their non-conference schedule, San Francisco struggled out of the gates losing their first four conference games. They bounced back however and finished 8-8 in conference play. They have beaten Portland twice this year, with the most recent 72-71 win courtesy of a pair of Cody Doolin free throws with 17 seconds left to win.
Portland's win over Santa Clara helped them snap a six-game losing streak heading into the tournament. It has been a tough season for the Pilots with their only conference wins coming over Santa Clara and Pepperdine.
The winner of this game will face the No. 4 seed Loyola Marymount Lions on Friday night in a 6 p.m. PST game televised by ESPNU. The second game Friday night will pit the No. 3 seed BYU Cougars against the winner of San Diego-Pepperdine.