Odds Long for Pepperdine, Loyola : WCC tournament: Two lowest seeds will need big turnaround to repeat past successes.

Two things worth noting about the West Coast Conference basketball tournament, which opens today with first-round games at Santa Clara’s Toso Pavilion:

--The host school has never won the event, which started in 1987.

--The tournament final has always included Pepperdine or Loyola Marymount, with Loyola winning to earn the WCC’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in 1988 and ’89 and Pepperdine advancing in ‘91, ’92 and ’94.

Other than that, there is little reason to believe that Pepperdine or Loyola will win this year’s tournament, which ends with the final being televised by ESPN at 9 p.m. Monday.

Pepperdine (8-18) is seeded seventh, its lowest seeding since 1987, and will play second-seeded Portland (19-7) today at noon.

Loyola (12-14) is seeded eighth for the third consecutive year and will play top-seeded Santa Clara (21-5) about 2:30 p.m.

Santa Clara, 10-0 at home this season and winner of its first WCC regular-season championship since 1970, is considered the favorite, but the Broncos had a nine-game winning streak ended when they were upset by Pepperdine, 73-63, last Saturday night at Pepperdine.

“I can’t put into words what that meant in terms of (lifting) our confidence,” said Pepperdine Coach Tony Fuller, whose team ended a seven-game losing streak with the victory. “I saw the smiles, I saw the confidence, I saw the competitive spirit come back to our team.

“If we can beat them, maybe we can beat somebody else too. Maybe we can win this thing. We haven’t been this high all season, and I can’t think of a more opportune time to be this confident.”

Pepperdine, 1-13 on the road, was 0-2 against Portland during the regular season.

Loyola, winless in two games against Santa Clara, is 6-13 since Dec. 20, when it defeated Washington to improve to 6-1, matching the best start in school history.

“It’s hard to believe, but that’s the hand that we dealt ourselves, so we’ve got to make the most of it,” Coach John Olive said of the Lions’ No. 8 seeding. “We’re not pleased about how our conference season turned out.”

Still, the Lions had their moments, defeating two of the conference’s top three teams, Portland and St. Mary’s, and pushing Santa Clara last week before losing, 74-69, on a night when Olive fainted in front of the Loyola bench with about nine minutes to play.

“I think our players and coaches realize that we’re capable of beating any team in the conference,” said Olive, who was given a clean bill of health after collapsing. “The key is to be able to do that three consecutive evenings.

“That’s something we haven’t been able to do. We haven’t been able to physically respond to back-to-back games. It’s going to be a major challenge for us.”