2015 WCC Tournament: San Francisco, Santa Clara advance in first round

The first two games of the West Coast Conference Tournament were chalk as 8-seed San Francisco defeated 9-seed Pacific, while 7-seed Santa Clara demolished 10-seed Loyola Marymount.

In the nightcap, Santa Clara advanced to play BYU Saturday with an 85-54 destruction of hapless Loyola Marymount. The Broncos raced to a 20-6 lead in the first six minutes and never looked back. Jared Brownridge and Brandon Clark scored 19 apiece for the Broncos, who played 13 players in the blowout.

At one point early in the second half, LMU cut the lead to 11 but Santa Clara's blistering shooting performance of 19-of-30 in the half fueled the blowout. Evan Payne poured in 29 points in the loss for LMU.

Santa Clara faces BYU at 9 p.m. MT, Saturday on ESPN2.

The night's first game saw San Francisco hold on late to beat Pacific. The Dons led by eight with five minutes to play, and Pacific almost made a comeback when a Dulani Robinson three-pointer brought the Tigers within two, but that was as close as it got.

Tim Derksen and Kruize Pinkens scored 14 for San Francisco, which advances to play #7 Gonzaga at 7 p.m. MT, Saturday on ESPN2. T.J. Wallace led Pacific with 14 points.

The quarterfinals begin at 1 p.m. MT when (3) Saint Mary's takes on (6) Portland.