No matter what happens on Friday at the Class AA boys state basketball tournament, a team from Kalispell will be playing in the Saturday night championship game.
Flathead and Glacier both won their first-round games on Thursday, setting up a semifinal matchup on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. The tournament is held in Bozeman at Montana State University.
The Braves, the third seed from the West, opened up the tournament with a 50-47 victory over Eastern No. 2 Billings Senior in an early afternoon game on Thursday. In the next game, Western No. 1 Glacier beat Eastern No. 4 Great Falls 59-52 to set up the Kalispell cross-town showdown.
The victory was the first at state in Glacier school history. Coming into the game, the Wolfpack were 0-6 in their previous three trips to state.
The tournament’s other semifinal matchup isn’t known yet. Western No. 2 Helena Capital plays Eastern No. 3 C.M. Russell in a first-round game at 6:30 p.m. Thursday night, followed by Eastern No. 1 Billings West against Western No. 4 Missoula Hellgate.
Also on Thursday, Western No. 2 Bigfork fell to Southern No. 1 Townsend in the first round of the Class B girls state tournament in Hamilton. The Valkyries play Southern No. 4 Columbus in a loser-out game at 12:30 p.m. on Friday.