LAS VEGAS - Two programs on the ascent collided Saturday night in the third round of the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Championship and gave fans at Orleans Arena a glimpse of what both hope are coming attractions.

Pacific made two defensive stands in the final 35 seconds to emerge with a 61-58 victory over Seattle U and will move on to face third-seeded Santa Clara (24-7) in the quarterfinals on Sunday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN2. But both teams played with grit and smarts that suggested they belong and could soon be a bigger problem for everyone else in the conference.

It was just two years ago that the Tigers made a leadership change after a six-win season, bringing in Canadian coaching legend Dave Smart. With no time to recruit, his team improved marginally in Year 1 to nine victories.

Pacific has now won 18 games for the first time in six years and will play on Sunday in the conference tournament for the first time since the program rejoined the West Coast Conference in 2013-14.

“It was better than the feeling last year at this time,” Smart said, referring to the Tigers’ first-round tournament exit in 2025. “It’s way later in the tournament than last year, too. Both are good feelings.”

Chris Victor was hired as Seattle U’s head coach before the 2021-22 season and has won at least 20 games in four of his five years. But this season was tougher, as the Redhawks made the jump to the West Coast Conference, a return to what was their home until exiting Division I after the 1980 season. 

“We earned the right to be in this conference with how we’ve been playing. We’re very fortunate to get the invite. This is where we belong,” Victor said. “Finishing tied for fifth, we weren’t happy with it. But I think for our first year, we understood the level that we were jumping to. 

"We don’t want to end this way. This isn’t some sort of moral victory for us. But it is true — this program has grown and we’re still getting better and better and better.”

The same is true in Stockton, where Smart took a chance leaving a good job as an assistant at Texas Tech to take over a program that hasn’t made it to the NCAA Tournament since 2013. University President Christopher Callahan and athletic director Adam Tschuor convinced Smart they were serious, wanted things done right and would be patient.

But Smart didn’t know for sure whether the Pacific sports community had his back until Jan. 4 of last year when the Tigers lost by 17 points at home to Pepperdine.

His wife told him three Pacific boosters invited the two of them to have dinner after the game. “I’m stupid. I’m not that stupid,” said Smart, who was envisioning a Last Supper scenario. “That was a big turning point for me. We went to that dinner and they talked about how we’re going in the right direction. We’ve had some bad games, but we trust you and we’re there for you. And they have been.”

Smart actually had time last offseason to recruit the type of players he wants and he said Saturday’s win shows he found the right guys. He also retained senior forward Elias Ralph, a Canadian who developed into a first-team all-conference player this season.

“We’ve had a lot of games like this one where we could have easily lost if they weren’t tough-minded and together,” he said. “We were throwing this one away and we got stops the last two possessions when we needed them, when things weren’t going our way.”

Both coaches see some of their own program in the other. “Seattle is so well-coached and they basically play the same way we play,” Smart said. “They’re hard to play against. They’re physical. They’ve got a lot of tough guys. I think we’ve got a decent amount of tough guys, too.”

Victor has been equally impressed. “Coach Smart’s done such a good job building that program. The season that they’re having is pretty special,” he said. 

“We do things differently, some of the schematics can be a little different. But overall, both have really strong defenses, both play a physical style of basketball, two teams that play really hard.”

It went Pacific’s way on Saturday, and Smart joked that he couldn’t have gotten to this point without the positive support of the community.

“Not as much as Emily’s helped me see the positive. Because I’m not the most positive person. I always see the negative, as in Santa Clara tomorrow at 8.”

THE SWAT THAT SAVED THE GAME: There were runs by both teams, big shots on both sides, but the Pacific-Seattle U game came down to the final 15 seconds when Redhawks star guard Brayden Maldonado drove toward the basket with his team trailing by two points.

The play they had called during the timeout “got blown up” by Pacific’s defense, Maldonado said, so he went left and drove toward the hoop. He didn’t see the 6-foot-7 Ralph lurking.

“I thought I had a lot more room. I went up for a layup — he made a great play and blocked it,” Maldonado said.

“I knew the clock was winding down,” Ralph said. “I just wanted to force him to his weak hand and then contest the shot. And I got a piece of it.”

USF’S 1-2 PUNCH DELIVERS: David Fuchs kept San Francisco in the game early before Tyrone Riley IV sparked a second-half onslaught that led to an 82-65 victory over Portland in the early third-round matchup.

Fuchs, who earned first-team all-conference honors in his first season with the Dons and was named the West Coast Conference Newcomer of the Year, had 13 of his team’s first 17 points, carrying the load in a game that was even at 29-all at halftime The 6-foot-9 native of Vienna, Austria finished with 23 points and 16 rebounds.

But it was Riley, scoreless at halftime and living through an up-and-down sophomore season, who helped trigger the decisive run in the second half. Riley scored 11 points in an 11 1/2-minute stretch and the Dons used a 32-10 run to transform a 39-38 deficit into a commanding 70-49 lead.

The 6-6 wing wound up scoring 18 points, all of them in the final 13:14 of the game. “If Tyrone plays at a high level, he puts us in a great position to win basketball games,” Fuchs said.

The fifth-seeded Dons (17-15) will need to be sharp Sunday when they  face No. 4 Oregon State (16-15) in a 5:30 p.m. quarterfinal game on ESPN2. The Beavers beat USF in both regular-season meetings.

Riley knew he had to snap out of his first-half funk. “At halftime, my coach pulled me to the side and said to just relax. I was, obviously, a little frustrated with how the first half went. Just letting things come to me and playing the right way, I felt like when I got into the defensive end the game the offensive end flowed. That was kind of the spark I needed.”

USF head coach Chris Gerlufsen believes Riley is a special talent but also said he needs time to mature as a player. 

Riley went through a six-game stretch a couple weeks back where he shot just 34 percent, including 3 of 19 from the 3-point arc, and averaged just over 8 points. But he seems to have snapped out of it, producing nearly 15 points per game over the previous four outings.

“I have all the faith in the world in Tyrone and how he’s built and what he’s about. I think people forget that he’s still so young in his basketball development,” Gerlufsen said. “He puts a lot of expectation on himself and we put a lot of expectation on him as a coaching staff. 

“That’s part of the process of becoming great. You have to go through some of these ebbs and flows and learn how you perform at your best and what works for you. He can be as good as he wants to be.”

DONS AWAIT THEIR SUPER BOWL: USF lost both meetings this season against Oregon State, including by a 90-63 margin on Feb. 12 at San Francisco. Riley, nursing a sore knee, did not play in that game.

The Beavers definitely have their attention. “It’s our Super Bowl,” Fuchs said. “We owe them. We let two go. We’re definitely going to come out swinging tomorrow.”

In particular, Fuchs said the Dons will have to defend the 3-point line better after the Beavers shot a combined 53 percent (23 for 43) from deep in the two games.

SECOND HALF DOOMS PILOTS: Portland and USF were tied at 29-all at halftime, but the Dons scored 53 second-half points to take charge. So, after wins the two previous nights, the Pilots (15-19) head home.

“Very disappointed to see the season end like that. They played hard, they played tough. They did everything I asked of them this season,” head coach Shantay Legans said of his team. “I thought we had an opportunity to do something special. We didn’t come out in that second half.”

The defeat also ended a spectacular freshman season by point guard Joel Foxwell, who earned first-team all-conference honors after setting a program freshman record with 529 points and an overall Portland standard with 221 assists.

“I loved every second of it,” the Melbourne, Australia native said.