I’m dreaming of some threes for Christmas.

Like the ones my team can drain.

Where the gym walls rattle,

and outside the cattle,

think we humans must have gone insane.

It’s hoop time. Round ball mayhem. The road to state.

And it began for several local teams this past weekend in Hamilton at the Tip-off tourney.

If you are girls basketball fans from Plains and Hot Springs, Christmas has arrived early this year.

Both the Plains Trotters and the Hot Springs Lady Heat posted 2-0 records in the round-robin affair that attracted 16 area teams to Hamilton to get the ball rolling.

For a handful of teams, it was a great way to start the 2023-24 season. Hope springs eternal on the March to Madness.

The Trotters and Lady Heat hit the courts first this past Friday in what was a two-day, everyone-plays-two games tournament.

No champion was crowned, but it was a good way to see what the team has this year and what it may need to work on as the “regular” season gets underway in the coming weeks.

On the boys side, Arlee was clearly the cream of the crop as their tall and talented line-up blew away the Plains Horsemen and Noxon Red Devils on successive nights.

For Noxon and Superior, it was back to the drawing board to iron out some wrinkles before things get hopping after the Christmas break. The Red Devils fell to Arlee and Lincoln, who were a surprising 2-0 after wins over Noxon and Superior.

Most of the other teams posted mixed results by the end of the tourney, but for ardent basketball fans, round ball season has arrived.

The Trotters had an impressive tourney, beating an aggressive Valley Christian team 27-17 Friday morning, led by state discus champion Lexi Deming’s 10 points and a swarming Plains defense.

Plains followed that win with a relatively comfortable 42-27 win over the Arlee girls, paced by double figure scoring put up by Blakely Lakko (11 points) and Trystan Larsen (10).

Meanwhile Hot Springs Lady Heat lived up to their preseason potential, at least for the first two games of the long season ahead, with a 53-15 thumping of Victor Friday morning, followed by a 45-26 win over Valley Christian early Saturday. The Lady Heat dominated inside play, led by junior Brooke Jackson and Lauryn Aldridge, who pick-and-rolled the daylights out of the Lady Eagles while sophomore guard/forward Kara Christensen picked them apart from all angles.

St Regis’ girls and the Lady Bobcats from Superior each posted 1-1 tourney marks, with the Lady Tigers from St. Regis beating Lincoln, then falling to Seeley. Superior rebounded from an opening day loss to Granite County (Philipsburg) and took down Victor on Saturday.

Noxon’s girls also had a tough time, losing a close game to Arlee Friday, then dropping a not so close game to Lincoln on day two of the event.

The Hot Springs boys finished the tourney 1-1, as did the St. Regis boys. Both 14C teams feature tall and talented young lineups. Hot Springs opened the tournament with a 49-34 win over Victor Friday, then followed that with a tough, foul-plagued loss to Valley Christian by a 59-49 count the next night.

St Regis, despite an eye-popping tournament from standout senior forward John Pruitt who had 22 points in the Tigers’ 76-56 win over the Class A Hamilton JV team, and 24 points despite being hampered by early foul trouble in their disappointing loss to Valley Christian Saturday morning by a 59-49 score. Tigers’ freshman guard Conner Lulis chipped in a game high 25 points against Hamilton JV and 13 against Valley Christian.

The Plains Horsemen were scheduled to play Valley Christian’s boys in the tourney opener Friday, but no record of that game or score was posted, if it was indeed played. Plains fell to Class B Arlee 60-41 Saturday afternoon.

One of the best games in the tournament was the 45-44 Alberton boys win over Granite County, a game which went down to the last second before the Panthers pulled out the win.

Alberton opened the tourney with a loss to Darby.

Most of the teams involved in the Hamilton tourney play a sporadic schedule between now and the first of the year, when league play and the long road to the postseason switches into high gear.