Flathead Valley Montana Sidelines: Kalispell, Montana News

Polson's run through the Class A boys state basketball tournament ended on Saturday when the Pirates lost to Laurel 60-48 in the championship game. Columbia Falls defeated Billings Central 51-30 to claim third place, giving Northwestern A two of the top three finishers at the state tournament.

In Class B, Rocky Boy capped off a perfect season by beating Shelby 58-49 in the state championship game. Big Sandy downed Power for the Class C boys title. The Class AA boys tournament will be held March 11-13, as will all of the girls state tournaments.

Below are the final brackets from this weekend.

-Class A
-Class B
-Class C

Polson is in the Class A boys state basketball championship and Columbia Falls is playing for third. Polson beat Butte Central 56-50 in overtime on Friday evening to advance to the state title game where it will face Laurel at 8 p.m. on Saturday night. Laurel beat Columbia Falls 47-43 in double overtime in the first round and then Browning 72-54 in the semifinals.

Columbia Falls, after losing to Laurel, rallied to beat Dillon 53-43 on Friday afternoon and then Butte Cenral 54-31 on Saturday morning to advance to consolation championship at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night. The Wildcats face Billings Central. Below are the championship games for each of the three state tournaments going on right now. Click on the class for a full bracket.

Class A (Butte Civic Center): Polson v. Laurel @ 8 p.m. (championship); Columbia Falls v. Billings Central @ 6:30 p.m. (consolation)
Class B (Great Falls ExpoPark): Rocky Boy v. Shelby @ 8 p.m. (championship); Shepherd v. Florence-Carlton @ 6:30 p.m. (consolation)
Class C (Billings MetraPark): Big Sandy v. Power @ 8 p.m. (championship); Arlee v. Culbertson @ 6:30 p.m. (consolation)

The Flathead and Glacier high school boys basketball teams are both going to state, but the schools' girls teams are done for the year.

Flathead beat Missoula Hellgate 64-42 on Thursday in a postseason play-in game to advance to the Class AA state tournament. Glacier defeated Helena High 54-42 on Thursday to also advance. In girls, Flathead lost 53-38 to Missoula Sentinel and Glacier lost to Helena High 64-31 in their play-in games, which were both on Thursday.

The remaining play-in league games for Western AA and Eastern AA are held on Friday. After those games, the state tournament brackets will be set. I will update them at that time.

After a busy weekend of divisional tournaments, every state bracket for boys basketball is set except for Class AA, which has its play-in postseason games this week. Meanwhile, only the Class A bracket is set for girls, with some Class B and C divisional tournaments yet to be played. Class AA girls also have their play-in postseason games this week.

I have provided links to show where the state brackets stand after this weekend's divisional tournaments. Some are complete. And by the end of this week, the rest will be complete as well. State tournaments, from Class AA through Class C, are scheduled for either March 4-6 or March 11-13. Click here for complete postseason schedules and here for a game-by-game breakdown of this week's Class AA play-in games.

State Brackets:
-Class AA boys; Class AA girls
-Class A boys; Class A girls
-Class B boys; Class B girls
-Class C boys; Class C girls

The Northwestern A divisional basketball tournament is at Glacier High School on Feb. 25-27. If you want to reference some year-end statistics, you can click here for boys and here for girls. The stats aren't always the easiest to read, but they're all there for both teams and individuals.

Individuals are listed by name, year and school. The top 10 individuals for each category are listed.

At this weekend's "Tournament of Champions," two Flathead Valley wrestlers took home individual titles. Brock Picard of Polson beat Kyle Sweedman of Libby with a 5-4 decision to claim the 171-pound title. Kelly Houle of Columbia Falls defeated Parker Miller from Glasgow with a 13-2 decision to win the 215-pound division.

The tournament, held in Great Falls on Feb. 20, featured 52 of the best wrestlers from Class AA, A and B/C, including 28 state champions. Tournament sponsor and Great Falls attorney Zander Blewett said the event had the "highest caliber of wrestling I've ever witnessed at the high school level."

Class B/C had eight champions, Class A had six and Class AA had one. For a list of individual champions and more information on the tournament, go to www.montanawrestling.blogspot.com.

The law firm of Hoyt and Blewett PLLC in Great Falls is hosting its second "Tournament of Champions," which will feature 58 of the state's top wrestlers from Class AA, A and B/C, including 30 state champions. The one-day, single-elimination wrestling tournament takes place in Great Falls on Saturday Feb. 20.

Among the featured wrestlers are state champions Brock Picard (171) of Polson and Kelly Houle (215) of Columbia Falls. According to a press release from Hoyt and Blewett, the tourney also includes the nationally ranked Rauser brothers of Broadwater. Jade Rauser is a national champion and three-time state champion who has never lost a high school match. Val Rauser earned second place at last year's national championship and is a two-time state champion.

It's a cool idea and a cool tournament that satisfies the curiosity of anybody who ever wonders, "Who is the best wrestler in the state, not just the class?" Some questions will remain unanswered, as not every single state champion has confirmed. But it will still be interesting to see the results.

Matches begin Saturday morning at Great Falls High School Old Gym at 11 a.m., with the championship round scheduled for 1 p.m. Ticket prices are $5 for students and $8 for adults.

Click here for more information and brackets.

In the final week of the Class A regular basketball season, both the boys and girls from Columbia Falls still are in first place in Northwestern A. They each have one game remaining against Polson on Thursday.

Following a 51-44 loss to Libby on Tuesday, the Columbia Falls girls are no longer undefeated in conference play. But their 6-1 league record is still good enough for No. 1. Their overall record is 11-6.

The Columbia Falls boys, meanwhile, are perfect in league play at 7-0. The Wildcats' overall record is 15-2. They are ranked No. 2 in the state behind Laurel.

In Class AA, Glacier and Flathead are neck and neck in the boys basketball standings, with each team sporting a 5-3 league mark. They are in a three-way tie for second place in Western AA with Helena Capital. Missoula Sentinel, at 7-2, has the best conference record.

Glacier has the advantage in overall record at 11-5, compared to Flathead at 9-6. For full Northwestern A and Western AA standings, click "read more."