2017-2018 WCC MBB Conference Results

Opening night in the WCC.

#20 Gonzaga 81, Pacific 48
San Diego 73, San Francisco 63
Santa Clara 72, Pepperdine 65
Saint Mary's 87, Loyola Marymount 59 (was 44-18 SMC at halftime)

Sound Voltex wrote:Opening night in the WCC.

#20 Gonzaga 81, Pacific 48
San Diego 73, San Francisco 63
Santa Clara 72, Pepperdine 65
Saint Mary's 87, Loyola Marymount 59 (was 44-18 SMC at halftime)

No upsets, and all the home teams won. USD, BYU and GU get to play two home games this opening weekend. PU, USF and LMU have to play to road games to start. UOP and UP come home, SMC and SCU hit the road. SMC goes to BYU, which will be an interesting early showdown for positioning (ESPNU). The other games are SCU @ GU, PU @ USD, LMU @ UOP, and USF @ UP.

Obviously the game to watch today is SMC @ BYU @ 1 PST on ESPNU....SMC is favored by 2.5 points.

The other close match is supposed be UOP by 3.5 at home vs. LMU, but it's not televised.

USD, very impressive in their Thursday win over USF, is favored over PU by 9.5 at home on ROOT TV.

And in the game expected to be the least competitive today, GU is supposed to knock off SCU, a winner over PU in its last game, also on ROOT TV.

In two excellent early games today, SMC beats BYU in Provo, 74-64, after it was 60-60 at the end of regulation....the altitude didn't seem to affect the Gaels.  Always love to see the "it's so unfair" BYU teams and fans lose, but it would also be nice to SMC Coach Bennett in an even fouler mood.

And Pepperdine really hung in with USD on the road today, but started taking unnecessary wild desperation shots with about 90 seconds to go and went down, 74-66, in a game that was a lot closer than the score would indicate.

(Second best game of the day was probably Duke's defeat of Florida St., but that's for another forum....)

Saint Mary's 74, BYU 64 OT
San Diego 74, Pepperdine 66
#20 Gonzaga 101, Santa Clara 52
Pacific 88, Loyola Marymount 82 OT

Three of four home teams won (3 of 5 with UP).

The UOP - LMU game was 66 all in regulation. They scored a combined 38 points in a five minute overtime. Crazy. UOP scored 22 in 5 minutes; it took UP 16 minutes to get to 22 points tonight.

No upsets tonight, either. I don't know the odds on UOP-LMU, but I'd have said pretty even, with UOP having a home court edge.

Sound Voltex wrote:Pacific 88, Loyola Marymount 82 OT

I only saw the last 10 minutes of this game, but UOP scored 33 points in the first 20 minutes and 33 points in the second 20 minutes, and then exploded for 22 points in the 5 minute overtime....including 14-14 from the free-throw line.  UOP was favored by 3.5 points.

Both teams looked a lot better than UP did tonight.

I was in Sacramento before Christmas to watch the Pilots beat Sacramento St., but tonight it was a different story as the Hornets scored 47 points in the second half to beat Portland State, 80-75.

Mid-major Madness Power Rankings has SMC back on top of the rankings after their @BYU win, USD a solid 4th, and UP 7th again.

Portland’s going to pick somebody off if Terry Porter lets his team keep chucking up threes. They lost by 24 points in Provo last Thursday, but kept it close for nearly 30 minutes. The Pilots took 27 threes in that one. They weren’t falling down the stretch, but considering Portland ranks as the 25th best three point shooting team in the nation (40.2 percent) you have to imagine they’ll fall in the future.

https://west-coast-conference-wcc-power-rankings

SCU (2-1) comes up big on defense beating LMU (0-3), 65-49, in LA.
SMC (3-0) beat UOP (1-2) in Moraga, 74-56.
GU (3-0) crushes PU (0-3) in Malibu, 89-59.
BYU (2-1) hangs on to beat USF (1-2) 69-59 in San Francisco.

Coach Cantu mentioned LMU as a mid-level conference team, with USF and USD. But they've lost 7 of the last 8, including the home game tonight.

UOP, who also beat LMU, lost @GU and @SMC, and gets BYU next. Tough four games to start conference play.

SCU's win was the first upset in conference play. LMU was favored by 4.5. Hope the Broncos celebrate their road win too much.

StudentPilot wrote:I was in Sacramento before Christmas to watch the Pilots beat Sacramento St., but tonight it was a different story as the Hornets scored 47 points in the second half to beat Portland State, 80-75.

PSU was impressive in non-conference play, but opened up Big Sky play 0-2, losing at Sac St. and at Eastern Washington, two teams with losing records.

After the game at GU, the next home game is UOP.  For those hoping for the first UP conf win, the Tigers just beat BYU 67-66 at Stockton.  I haven't looked at the Cougar board; I'm sure calm analysis prevails.

GU cruised past LMU in L.A. 85-66
USF won at PU 80-67

USD is up two at the half in Moraga.

up7587 wrote:USF won at PU 80-67  

Watched that game.....PU did not make it easy for the Dons.  The Waves actually led in the second half for awhile, but eventually the Dons' inside game prevailed.

USF's freshman #0 who scored 26 in the Chiles Center, scored 5 today in Firestone Arena.

DoubleDipper wrote:USF's freshman #0 who scored 26 in the Chiles Center, scored 5 today in Firestone Arena.

Guess he didn't have any high school buddies there to encourage him.

up7587 wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:USF's freshman #0 who scored 26 in the Chiles Center, scored 5 today in Firestone Arena.

Guess he didn't have any high school buddies there to encourage him.

Haha, said he "caught a little cold in Portland" and only played 13 minutes....will be "ready for the rematch in SF."

Wonderful kid.  As soon as he learns to play defense he has a chance to be a star!

USD was up 49-41, seven minutes later it was 49-58. Still in progress.

SMC wins 70-63 over USD.

The UOP win was the second upset of conference play; BYU was favored by 6.5.

up7587 wrote:  For those hoping for the first UP conf win, the Tigers just beat BYU 67-66 at Stockton.
 
USD is up two at the half in Moraga.  

Just finished watching both those games....

St. Mary's and Cullen Neal really stepped it up in the second half, winning 70-63.  Looked like the Toreros were tired down the stretch after their OT victory in Portland.

BYU had a tough first half, but UOP had to hold them off in the second half.  Elijah Bryant scored 29 for the Cougars, including a 3 to pull BYU within one with 15 seconds left...and the Cougars had a chance to win it after UOP missed a couple of free-throws, but on the final play the BYU layup did not beat the buzzer.

up7587 wrote:PSU was impressive in non-conference play, but opened up Big Sky play 0-2, losing at Sac St. and at Eastern Washington, two teams with losing records.

Last night in Moscow the Vikings trailed by 5 with 30 seconds remaining before they scored two quick buckets off turnovers to cut it to a 1 point deficit with 12 seconds to go. Idaho then missed the front-end of a one-and-one, and after a scramble PSU got the ball to Deante Strickland, who clanked a 3-point attempt off the front rim before Holland Woods grabbed the ball for the putback....Vikings beat the Vandals, 73-72.

Deontae Woods scored 30 points....

Sounds too familiar!

BYU 83, Pepperdine 63
Pacific 74, San Diego 70
Loyola Marymount 67, San Francisco 65
Saint Mary's 81, Santa Clara 57

San Fransisco took a 1 point lead as the game was coming to a close, but then a player fouled a LMU player as he was doing a prayer heave three at the buzzer, which turned into the three game-winnings FTs.

Pacific might be the new lower tier WCC miracle.

Bad night for the WCC middle-tier.

Pacific's was a home won, and they were a small favorite over USD. They come to Chiles on Saturday with 3 wins already.
LMU also was a home win, but USF was favored. That's their first conference win, leaving only UP and PU winless.

No upsets tonight in conference play:
GU beat USF 75-65, although USF did cover the 14.5 spread.
SMC beat PU 91-67.
BYU beat SCU 84-50.
USD beat LMU 75-71. USD was favored by 8 at home.

The first of two, and probably three, meetings between SMC and GU this season is on ESPN today at 6.

Before the season began SMC (17-2/6-0) was the unanimous choice to knock GU (16-3/6-0) from atop the WCC, but it turns out the Zags have recovered nicely from the loss of key players, and is now ranked #13 by the AP.

GU is favored by 7.5 over the veteran Gaels because they are playing at home and because SMC's defense has been, well, not very good (244th in the nation), while GU's offense is shooting 52.4%.

GU has overlooked and lost to BYU in Spokane the last two years in a row, but I don't think they'll be overlooking the Gaels.

Should be a good game....

There are no predicted close games in other action in the WCC today:
USD is favored by 13 at home vs. UP
UOP is favored by 10 at home vs. PU
BYU is favored by 15 at home vs. LMU
USF is favored by 10 at home vs. SCU

Wow, that Gonzaga/SMC game was an absolute treat to watch. Two really good basketball teams, that was wild! Never sad to see Gonzaga lose!