One hurdle remains in the state basketball tournament journey for both Bigfork's girls and boys - the Western B divisional.

The Bigfork girls, third-ranked in all of Class B and runaway victors in last week's District 7B tournament - tackle divisional action today at 6 p.m. versus Valley Christian.

The Bigfork boys, third-place finishers at the District 7B tournament - open play on Thursday versus longtime nemesis Missoula Loyola at 1 p.m.

All the action is set for Salish Kootenai College in Pablo with the top two boys and girls teams advancing to state next month.

"When you get to this time (of the season), you focus on defense and rebounding," Bigfork coach Mark Hansen said.

"We want to focus on the things we do well."

The Valkyries have done plenty of "things" right as they are currently riding an 18-game winning streak. Bigfork (19-1 overall) cruised to a pair of easy wins at the district tourney, with the margin of victory at 28 and 34 points.

"Nobody has," Hansen said of his players talking about the streak or rankings.

"Either they don't know or they know better than to bring it up to me in practice. They just talk about getting better each time in practice."

Caitlin Charlebois leads a balanced Val offense with her 14.5 points per game scoring average. Mallery Knoll is next, 12.5, followed by Quinci Paine at 10.

Paine is averaging a team-best nine rebounds per game. Melissa VanDerVeer is next at eight.

"Six girls working together, believing in each other," Hansen said of the formula this season for the team's success.

"It's a pretty remarkable group of young ladies. They come to practice to get better. When it comes time to step across the line, they are not always perfect, but they want to improve. I've never had a group like that in my 23 years of coaching."

Of the three teams from 6B at the divisional, the only one Bigfork has faced in regular-season play is Loyola. They met back on Dec. 18 in Bigfork with the Valkyries winning 59-48.

Loyola topped Bigfork in last year's divisional championship game, 42-41, which was also held in Pablo.

"It will be their size against our quickness if we get to that point (for another rematch)," Hansen said.

"We still have a very good Valley Christian team (to deal with) that has a lot of size.

"Nothing is easy (at this point)," he stressed.

"Every game at this stage will be a little tougher. We have to be ready for it."

Bigfork's girls last year entered the divisional tournament ranked No. 8 and holding an 18-2 record.

Bigfork's boys were 17-5 last year and ranked fifth going into the divisional. They suffered a pair of back-to-back heartbreaking losses - 63-60 in the semifinals to Loyola- to derail their state tournament aspirations.

The Vikings have already had to deal with adversity this tournament season, getting upset in the 7B semifinals last week. But they bounced back with two impressive victories to advance to the divisional.

"We had one of our best basketball games of the year last Saturday (87-51 win over Eureka)," Bigfork coach Paul La Mott said.

"We had our highest point total of the year."

Bigfork followed that with a 66-25 victory over Plains in the consolation final.

"We felt all year, from Day 1 on, that for us to make it to state, the first thing to make it happen was to compete against Loyola in the divisional tournament," La Mott said.

"It that works out (beating Loyola), we have a favorable second-round game. If it doesn't, hopefully we will play our hearts out and have a chance to challenge."

For Bigfork (15-6) to be successful, La Mott says the Vikings have to focus on one thing - defense.

"When we play hard on defense, good things usually happen," he said.

"When we're complacent and not playing inspired basketball, we tend to struggle."

Loyola and Bigfork have some history already this season. They squared off in Missoula on Dec. 18 with the Rams winning 50-43.

Christian Ker, who had 17 points in that effort for Bigfork, has been the team's scoring leader at 16.5 per game. He will have to have another big offensive effort to spark the Vikings.

Ker also leads in rebounds at 8.5 per contest.

Carter Sorensen was the team's No. 2 scorer, averaging 16 points. He's out with a knee injury suffered just before the 7B tournament.

Ian Lorang is averaging 9.5 points per game for the Vikings.

"Colter Trent and Cody Dopps did some good things for us (filling in for Sorensen)," La Mott said. "Also, Dillon Fraley is starting to put it together. He's a strong kid and is playing his best basketball of the year right now."

Western B Divisional

First-Round Games

Girls

Today

1 p.m. - Missoula Loyola vs. Troy

2:45 p.m. - Superior vs. Mission

6 p.m. - Bigfork vs. Valley Christian

7:45 p.m. - Plains vs. Deer Lodge

Boys

Thursday

11:20 a.m. - Troy vs. Valley Christian

1 p.m. - Bigfork vs. Missoula Loyola

4 p.m. - Florence vs. Plains

5:45 p.m. - Deer Lodge vs. Thompson Falls