Steve Lavin got at least one more day as the men’s basketball coach at the University of San Diego.

The 11th-seeded Toreros defeated Loyola Marymount 66-62 Thursday night in the opening round of the West Coast Conference Tournament at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. USD (12-20) will play seventh-seeded Seattle University (19-12) Saturday night at 8:30 in the second round.

“You have to dream big,” Lavin said after the Toreros snapped a four-game losing streak by avenging two earlier losses this season to the Lions. “Everyone gets a reset in a tournament. We led for 35 minutes in this game. It was a steady buzz-saw performance. They made a run, and we answered.”

USD held a 44-31 lead early in the second half. But LMU (15-17) pulled to within one at 60-59 before Toneari Lane and Juanse Gorosito sank six straight free throws over the final 44 seconds.

Guard Adrian McIntyre led USD with 17 points, six rebounds and five assists. Gorosito had 14 points off the bench and was 4-for-9 on three-point attempts. Lane had 13 points and freshman forward Gavin Ripp scored 11 points.  Assane Diop scored seven points and pulled down nine rebounds as USD used its 20th different starting lineup this season.

“When you come to the postseason, you start zero-zero,” said Gorosito. “We played loose.”

Season ends for USD women

Seventh-seeded San Francisco (17-13) defeated the USD women’s basketball team 61-52 Friday afternoon in a second-round WCC Tournament game. The 11th-seeded Toreros, who defeated Saint Mary’s 66-62 on Thursday, ended their season at 11-22.

Freshman guard Olivia Owens led USD with 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Guard Kylie Ray scored 10 points. USD shot only 32.9% from the floor while turning the ball over 21 times.

PLNU splits

The top-seeded Point Loma Nazarene University men will play for the NCAA Division II PacWest Conference Tournament championship Saturday at 2 p.m. at Golden Gym on campus.

The second-seeded PLNU women were upset by third-seeded Azusa Pacific 70-59 in their semifinal on Friday.

PLNU’s men (24-5) raced to a 95-66 victory over Hawaii Pacific on Friday afternoon in their semifinal. PLNU will play second-seeded Westmont College (18-11) in the men’s championship game. Westmont defeated Concordia Irvine 82-73 on Friday.

Six Sea Lions scored in double figures Friday, led by guard Jaden Matingou (St. Augustine High  School), who had 20 points and seven assists. Caden Harris added 17 points and seven rebounds. Andrew Hommes scored 12 points, James Nobles and Jake Lifgren each had 11 points and Tyce Paulsen finished with 10.

PLNU connected on 16 of 31 three-point attempts, shot 53.3% from the floor for the game and led 54-28 at halftime.

In the women’s semifinal, Azusa Pacific (22-8) outscored PLNU (21-7) 21-10 in the second quarter to take a 27-19 lead into intermission and pulled away in the fourth quarter.

Forward Ruby Vlahov led PLNU with 19 points while post Eiley Tippins scored 17. Maddie Mersch scored nine points off the bench while guard Hannah Golan scored seven points and paced both teams with 12 rebounds.

Title up for grabs

The UC San Diego women (21-8 overall, 16-3 in Big West play) host UC Santa Barbara (20-8, 12-7) at LionTree Arena at 4 p.m. Saturday, needing a win to clinch at least a share of the conference title and one of the top two seeds in next week’s conference tournament in Henderson, Nev.

The Tritons are the defending tournament champions.

3C2A Playoffs

The fifth-seeded San Diego City College men (24-5) and MiraCosta College women (28-1) are one win away from traveling to the eight-team California Community College Athletic Association basketball finals March 13-15 in Visalia.

The Spartans will be home Saturday night, hosting 13th-seeded Los Angeles Trade Tech (21-9) at 7 p.m. in a Southern California Regionals final. SDCC will travel to fourth-seeded Ventura (25-4) for a 7 p.m. men’s regional final Saturday.