Western Coast Conference Briefs

USD grabs tourney title from the Zags

For the first time in WCC tournament history, the San Diego Toreros are the WCC men’s basketball tournament champions. The Toreros held on to beat Gonzaga 72-63.

With the win, the Toreros earn the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and their first trip to the Big Dance since the 1986-87 season when they finished with a 24-6 mark.

San Diego improves to 18-11, while Gonzaga falls to 23-8. Both teams will now wait till Sunday to find out their seeds for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

USD’s Jason Keep was named tournament MVP. He finished with a team-high 18 points to go along with six rebounds. Senior guard Matt Delzell and freshman forward Nick Lewis were both named to the All-Tournament team after scoring 14 points each.

Portland baseball can’t slay ‘Cats

In WCC baseball action, the University of Portland Pilots lost a high-scoring heartbreaker to the University of Arizona Wildcats 15-12.

Arizona scored three times with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning Wednesday to break a 12-12 tie, sending Portland home with a loss. The Pilots dropped to 3-11, while No. 21 Arizona improved to 14-7.

The game took four hours to complete, featured a combined 30 hits and six errors, and nine pitchers.

Submitted March 13, 2003

MALIBU, CA