They are wasting no time getting Regionals under way. The Class 4A Regionals starts at 7:30 p.m. today, Feb. 27, with Montezuma-Cortez High School boys hosting Fountain-Fort Carson in the first round of the new 32-team field.

The Panthers are the 12th seed and got to host Fountain-Fort Carson (21st seed) by winning the District VII Basketball Tournament in Grand Junction. Cortez beat Steamboat Springs in the championship game, Rifle in the semifinals and Palisade in the quarterfinals (see related story).

Meanwhile, the Panther girls (no. 17) travel to no. 16 seed Summit (in Frisco) for a game also at 7:30 p.m. today. MCHS lost to Montrose in the finals of the District VII Tournament.

In 2A action, Dolores girls play West Grand and Mancos boys play North Park on Saturday, March 3, at Grand Junction High School. Dolores plays at 1 p.m. and Mancos plays at about 3:15 at neutral site Grand Junction High School.

If the Panther boys, 15-7 overall, win they will play the no. 5 Valley (Gilcrest)-no. 28 Pueblo County winner on Friday, March 2. The highest surviving seed will host on Friday night. The winner of those games will advance to the Class 4A Boys State Basketball Championships March 8-10 in the Pepsi Center in Denver.

"I have talked to a few people about Fountain-Fort Carson, MCHS head boys coach Wade Mortensen commented about his team’s opponent tonight. "I know they are very fast and they like to run. They are not very patient on offense (not wanting to set an offense up) and will try to get off quick shots to keep an uptempo game. But we like to run, too, so that’s fine with us."

Mortensen will probably go with his lineup of Marcus Mortensen, Mike Rivas or Gave Evans, Jeff Anderson, Chris Garland and Layne Frazier.

The Panthers girls, 8-13 overall, will have a tougher road to get to State. If they should beat Summit on the road, they will likely take on defending champion and top-seeded Mullen on Friday night in Denver. The Class 4A Girls State Basketball Championships are also March 8-10 with the first two rounds at the Denver Coliseum and the finals in the Pepsi Center.

The Panthers, under first-year coach Stan Yake, will probably start Stefanie Allison, Casey Bauer, Emilie Lanier, Denise Newlin and Andrea Derrick.

Dolores girls are currently undefeated at 22-0. They are coming off wins over Mancos and Nucla in the Class 2A District III Tournament which was held over the weekend at MCHS.

"We won’t do anything different in preparation this week," DHS first-year head girls coach Rob Mellott commented. "We will play hard-nosed defense because that got us where we’re at. We are not going to try to change anything right now. We want to keep going like we are going."

Mellott will probably start Amber Simmons, Amanda Cross, Jennifer Trevillian, Joni Everett, and Tracy Everett.