MISSOULA — Billings West will be the East's No. 1 seeds for the Class AA boys and girls state basketball tournaments, while the Helena boys and Missoula Big Sky girls will be the top seeds for the West.
The Class AA state tournaments are March 13-15 at Worthington Arena in Bozeman.
Class AA eliminated divisional tournaments prior to this season, instead granting automatic state berths to the top two teams from each conference. Joining both Golden Bears teams from the East are the second-seeded Billings Skyview boys and second-seeded Gallatin girls. In the West, Missoula Hellgate earned the No. 2 seed for both the boys and girls.
The new format includes playoff games featuring teams seeded third through sixth in the regular-season conference standings. The winners of the playoff games will advance to the state tournaments.
The teams that finished seventh and eighth in each conference — the Great Falls boys, Great Falls CMR girls and both Belgrade squads — were eliminated after the regular season.
The schedule for the playoff games is below.
Eastern AA
Boys
Billings West (No. 1) and Billings Skyview (No. 2) receive automatic berths in state tournament.
Thursday, March 6
No. 5 Great Falls CMR at No. 4 Billings Senior, 6 p.m. (winner advances to state)
No. 6 Bozeman at No. 3 Gallatin, 7 p.m. (winner advances to state)
Girls
Billings West (No. 1) and Gallatin (No. 2) receive automatic berths in state tournament.
Thursday, March 6
No. 5 Billings Senior at No. 4 Bozeman, 5 p.m. (winner advances to state)
No. 6 Great Falls at No. 3 Billings Skyview, 6 p.m. (winner advances to state)
Western AA
Boys
Helena (No. 1) and Missoula Hellgate (No. 2) receive automatic berths in state tournament.
Thursday, March 6
No. 6 Missoula Big Sky at No. 3 Helena Capital, 6 p.m. (winner advances to state)
Friday, March 7
No. 5 Missoula Sentinel at No. 4 Butte, 7:30 p.m. (winner advances to state)
Girls
Missoula Big Sky (No. 1) and Missoula Hellgate (No. 2) receive automatic berths in state tournament.
Thursday, March 6
No. 5 Kalispell Glacier at No. 4 Helena, 6 p.m.
Friday, March 7
No. 6 Helena Capital at No. 3 Butte, 6 p.m.
