The brackets for the Class A boys and girls basketball divisional tournaments have been released.
The Eastern A tournaments will be held at First Interstate Arena at MetraPark, beginning on Wednesday and concluding on Saturday. The Western A tournaments, meanwhile, will be in Butte -- the boys at the Civic Center and the girls at the Maroon Activities Center. Both of the Western A tournaments will begin on Thursday and conclude on Saturday.
Four teams from each bracket will advance to the Class A state tournaments, which are scheduled for March 3-6 at Great Falls.
The Billings Central and Hardin girls enter postseason as the reigning co-state champions, and both teams figure to be contenders at the Eastern A. Billings Central enters with a 13-1 overall record and Hardin is 10-3. Laurel, which competes along side Billings Central and Hardin in the Southeastern A, is 10-4 overall. Havre is the top team out of the Northeastern A, running up a conference record of 8-0 and an overall mark of 12-1.
The Western A tournament includes undefeated Columbia Falls, which is 16-0 in 2021. Fellow Northwestern A squads Whitefish (11-4 overall), Browning (8-5) and Ronan (9-7) also have above-.500 records. Browning and Ronan play Polson and Libby, respectively, in Northwestern A play-in games to advance to bracket play. Butte Central (11-4 overall), Dillon (9-6) and Hamilton (10-5) also enter with records better than .500 from the Southwestern A. Hamilton plays Stevensville in a Southwestern A play-in game, and fourth-seeded Frenchtown plays No. 5 Corvallis in the other.
Butte Central and Hardin are the reigning co-state champions on the boys side. The Maroons are 9-6 overall this season and 5-5 in Southwestern A play, which slots them behind unbeaten Dillon (14-0 overall, 10-0 conference) and Frenchtown (11-5, 6-4) in league play. Butte Central plays sixth-seeded Stevensville in a Southwestern A play-in game, while No. 4 Corvallis meets No. 5 Hamilton in the other. The Northwestern A play-in games will pit No. 3 Libby against No. 6 Browning and No. 4 Whitefish against No. 5 Columbia Falls. Polson (14-1 overall) and Ronan (10-6) have secured their places in the first round of the divisional bracket.
Hardin (4-5 overall, 2-2 conference) is looking up at Laurel (10-3, 5-0) and Billings Central (10-3, 3-2) in the Southeastern A standings. Three teams -- Havre, Glendive and Lewistown -- finished with above-.500 records in the Northeastern A. Havre enters the divisional tournament with a 9-4 overall record, while Glendive is 10-5 and Lewistown is 9-5.
PDF versions of the divisional tournaments brackets are below. For end-of-season standings, click here.
For brackets for the Class C divisional tournaments, click here.
- Eastern A boys and girls -- Feb. 24-27 at Billings
- Western A boys -- Feb. 25-27 at Butte
- Western A girls -- Feb. 25-27 at Butte
