It’s prep hoops playoff time. The march to March Madness (state) has begun.

Montezuma-Cortez High School boys and girls will head to the Class 4A District VII Basketball Tournament in Grand Junction today, Feb. 22, through Saturday, Feb. 23. Dolores boys and girls, Mancos boys and girls, and either Dolores County boys (if they won Wednesday night, Feb. 21, in a pigtail game) will compete this Friday and Saturday in the Class 2A District III Basketball Tournament which will be played in Ron Wright Memorial Gym at MCHS.

The District VII Basketball Tournament for boys will feature no. 2 Cortez against no. 7 Palisade at 4:45 p.m. today at Mesa State College Fieldhouse. In the other side of the bracket, no. 4 Rifle will face no. 6 Moffat County at Grand Junction High at 8:15. No. 5 Montrose meets no. 6 Glenwood Springs at 4:45 p.m. at GJHS while no. 1 Steamboat Springs battles no. 8 Delta at 8:15 p.m. at Mesa State College. The championship semifinals will be held at 4:45 and 8:15 p.m. Friday at Mesa State while the consolation semifinals will be at 4:15 and 8:15 Friday. The fifth place game will be held at 12:45 p.m. Saturday, third place at 4:15 and finals at 7:45 at Mesa State.

The Panthers are 12-7 overall with a three-game winning streak including a big win at home last weekend over arch-rival Durango. MCHS head boys coach Wade Mortensen will probably start Marcus Mortensen, Gabe Evans, Chris Garland, Layne Frazier and Jeff Anderson.

Delta is 4-16 overall and riding a 10-game losing streak. Steamboat Springs is 17-2 but has lost two of its last three games. Glenwood Springs is 11-8 and has won three in a row. Moffat County is 9-11, Palisade 11-8 and Montrose 1-18. Rifle is 16-3 and has won eight of its last nine.

The District VII Basketball Tournament for girls will feature no. 5 Cortez taking on no. 7 Steamboat Springs at 3 p.m. today at GJHS. In the other bracket, no. 1 Moffat County faces no. 8 Delta at 6:30. In the other bracket, no. 3 Rifle meets no. 6 Palisade and no. 2 Montrose takes on no. 7 Glenwood Springs. The MCHS-Steamboat winner will meet the Moffat County-Delta winner at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Mesa State College while the losers will play at 6:30 p.m. at GJHS. The fifth-place game will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Mesa State, third place at 2:30 p.m. and the finals at 6:30 p.m. also at Mesa State.

The Panther are 6-12 overall but have two in a row including beating 5A rival Durango last weekend. First-year MCHS head coach Stan Yake will likely start Emilie Lanier, Casey Bauer, Stefanie Allison, Denise Newlin, and Andrea Derrick.

Montrose enters with a 17-2 overall mark and the Indians have won eight consecutive. Moffat County is 16-2 and winners of five straight. Steamboat is 8-7, Palisade 10-9. Glenwood Springs is 11-9 but have lost two of its last three. Delta is 3-11.

Class 4A will have a completely different setup for Regoinals than in past years. This year the top five teams from District VII will join three qualifiers from District I, seven from District II, four from District III, five from District IV, five from District V, and three from District VI in a 32-team bracket with seedings to take place on Sunday, Feb. 25. The highest seeded teams from the respective district tournaments will get home games during next week (probably Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday arangement).

The final eight boys and girls teams will then go to the Class 2A State Basketball Tournament with the boys playing in the Pepsi Center while the girls will be at the Denver Coliseum, March 8-10.

The Mancos girls, after losing twice in the last weekend of the San Juan Basin League season to lost twice to Telluride 36-35 and to Dolores 76-47) to finish as the no. 4 in the standings, made the girls’ side of the tournament a lot clearer Tuesday night, Feb. 20, by beating Dolores County 63-39 in the Mancos Performance Center.

Mancos will have the dubious honor of taking on undefeated (19-0) SJBL champ (top-seeded) Dolores at 7 p.m. Friday in the District III semifinals. In the other semifinal, no. 2 seed Nucla battles no. 3 seed Telluride at 4 p.m. Friday.

The championship game will get under way at 1 p.m. Saturday. This game is really to see who will take home the championship plague and for the all-important seeding into next week’s Regionals March 3 in Grand Junction. The winner of those games will advance to the 2A State Basketball Tournament at the Pueblo Events Center, March 8-10.