Big West Tournament 2015: Bracket, schedule and scores

The Big West Tournament tipped off on Thursday and three days from the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. has left us with UC Irvine beating Hawaii for the 2015 title and its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The one clear favorite, UC Davis, fell in the semifinal round to Hawaii, one of a number of teams that could have stolen the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Aggies earned the No. 1 seed after putting up a 14-2 conference record in the regular season. Their only two losses came on the road to UC Santa Barbara and Hawaii. It’s quite a turnaround from last season, when UC Davis went 9-22 and didn’t even qualify for the conference tournament.

If you like chaos in your mid-major tourneys, the Big West could fit the bill. Last season Cal Poly crashed the party, winning the tournament and making the NCAAs with a 13-19 record.

Only the top eight of the Big West’s nine teams qualify for the tournament (sorry, CS-Fullerton). This follows a standard eight-team format with no byes, except that after the first round the teams are re-seeded so that the highest remaining plays the lowest remaining in the semifinals.

The Big West has a downloadable bracket available here.

The first round is airing on FOX Prime Ticket, a sister channel of FOX Sports West. Check your local listings. The final round will be carried on ESPN2.

Thursday, March 12 (Quarterfinals)

Game 1: No. 1 UC Davis 71, No. 8 CS-Northridge 67
Game 2: No. 5 Hawaii 79, No. 4 Long Beach State 72
Game 3: No. 3 UC Irvine 63, No. 6 UC Riverside 54
Game 4: No. 2 UC Santa Barbara 54, No. 7 Cal Poly 50

Friday, March 13 (Semifinals)

Game 5: No. 5 Hawaii 65, No. 1 UC Davis 58
Game 6: No. 3 UC Irvine 72, No. 2 UC Santa Barbara 63 (OT)

Saturday, March 14 (Championship)

No. 3 UC Irvine 67, No. 5 Hawaii 58