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Browning Boys, Girls Win Northwest A Regular Season Titles

Whitefish wins pair of play-in games Monday to send both teams to divisional tourney

By Andy Viano
The Browning team huddles before the start of the game against Libby during the Northwest Class A district tournament in Whitefish on Feb. 15, 2019. Greg Lindstrom | Flathead Beacon

The Western A basketball tournament opens Thursday, Feb. 27 in Ronan and the Browning Indians boys and girls will enter as the top seeds from the Northwest A.

The girls completed a perfect league season with a 70-25 rout of Polson on Feb. 22. Browning (15-3, 10-0 Northwest A). Columbia Falls (16-2, 8-2) finished second in the league behind the Indians and also secured an automatic berth in the divisional tournament.

In play-in action on Feb. 24, Whitefish and Ronan rounded out the field with wins over Libby and Polson, respectively. The Bulldogs (6-13, 2-8) toppled Libby 38-29, their second win over the Loggers in four days. Whitefish has won three of its last four and the Bulldogs’ six wins this season are the most since 2015-16. Ronan (11-8, 6-4) clobbered Polson (0-18, 0-10) 57-17 to earn the third seed.

The Indians boys, meanwhile, came from behind to beat the Pirates 69-66 to close the regular season on Feb. 22. Browning (14-4, 9-1) and Polson (11-7, 7-3) earned the automatic spots in the divisional tourney. Whitefish (8-11, 3-7) throttled Columbia Falls 57-31 and Ronan (8-11, 2-8) stunned Libby (12-7, 6-4) 54-49 in play-in games on Feb. 24 to secure the final two divisional berths.

The Western A divisional tournament pits teams from the Southwest and Northwest A conferences against one another in the opening round, with the top four teams at the double-elimination tournament advancing to the Class A state tourney. The divisional runs Feb. 27-29 at the Ronan Event Center.