1988 West Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament

The 1988 West Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 5–7 at the Toso Pavilion (now Leavey Center) on the campus of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California.[1] This was the second edition of the tournament; it included all eight teams and all seven games were held at the same site.[2][3]

1988 West Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament
ClassificationDivision I
Season1987–88
Teams8
SiteToso Pavilion
Santa Clara, CA
ChampionsLoyola Marymount (1st title)
Winning coachPaul Westhead (1st title)
MVPHank Gathers (Loyola Marymount)
West Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball tournaments
← 1987
1989 →
1987–88 West Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
No. 15 Loyola Marymount 14 0   1.000 28 4   .875
Saint Mary's 9 5   .643 19 9   .679
Santa Clara 9 5   .643 20 11   .645
Pepperdine 8 6   .571 17 13   .567
Gonzaga 7 7   .500 16 12   .571
San Francisco 5 9   .357 13 15   .464
San Diego 3 11   .214 11 17   .393
Portland 1 13   .071 6 22   .214
Conference tournament winner
Rankings from AP poll

Regular season champion Loyola Marymount defeated tournament host and #3 seed Santa Clara 104–96 in the final to win their first WCAC (now WCC) tournament championship.[4]

The Lions earned the automatic bid to the 64-team NCAA tournament and were seeded tenth in the West regional. Sent to Salt Lake City, they outscored Wyoming 119–115, but were stopped 123–97 by second-seeded North Carolina.

Bracket

edit
Quarterfinals
Saturday, March 5
Semifinals
Sunday, March 6
Championship
Monday, March 7
         
1 #18 Loyola Marymount 110
8 San Diego 104
1 #18 Loyola Marymount 109
4 Pepperdine 106
5 Gonzaga 70
4 Pepperdine 81
1 #18 Loyola Marymount 104
3 Santa Clara 96
3 Santa Clara 90
6 San Francisco 88
3 Santa Clara 69
2 Saint Mary's 62
7 Portland 48
2 Saint Mary's 68

Notes

edit
  • The tournament champion, Loyola Marymount, scored over 100 points in all three games (San Diego: 110–104, Pepperdine: 109–106, Santa Clara: 104–96) for a total of 323 points.

References

edit
  1. ^ "1987-88 West Coast Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  2. ^ Blanchette, John (March 5, 1988). "Zags draw Waves in opener". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. D7.
  3. ^ "Loyola Marymount nearly trips over lowly Pilots". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. March 6, 1988. p. 6B.
  4. ^ "Loyola claims WCAC crown". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. March 8, 1988. p. 2D.