Hoops Heat: NAC hits MSU-Northern Friday and Saturday

High school basketball hits the floor running all over Montana this weekend.

But perhaps nowhere can fans see so many good boys and girls teams in one place than in Havre Friday and Saturday.

The Native American Classic is annual tournament featuring some of the best Montana reservation schools, including Hi-Line clubs Harlem, Rocky Boy and Box Elder.

The tournament gets underway Friday morning at 10 a.m. with the Box Elder boys taking on the Browning junior varsity team. The game is the first of six games on Friday and six more on Saturday.

Friday's action has a Hi-Line team in ever game. The second tilt features the Rocky Boy girls against Browning, and the third game pits the Harlem boys against the Heart Butte Warriors.

Friday's night session kicks off at 5 p.m. with the defending 9C champion Box Elder girls taking on Valier, then the defending Class B state champion Rocky Boy Stars take the floor to battle Valier. The first day wraps up with the much0-improved Harlem girls taking on Heart Butte at 8 p.m.

All of the teams will return to action on Saturday. The morning session starts with a Hi-Line rivalry matchup between the Box Elder girls and Harlem girls at 9:30 a.m. The Valier boys take on Browning in the second game Saturday morning, And Saturday's first session wraps up with the Rocky Boy girls battling Heart Butte.

The final session of the tournament starts at 4:30 p.m. with Box Elder and Harlem squaring off in a boys game. Valier then faces Browning in a girls game and the tournament finale will pit the Stars against the Heart Butte Warriors. The last game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. and all of the action takes place at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse in Havre.

There's also tournament action in Big Sandy this weekend. The Big Sandy Preseason Tournament features boys and girls teams from North Star, Chinook, Highwood, Winifred-Roy, Augusta and the host Pioneers.

The Big Sandy Tournament starts tonight with a pair of games, and runs through Saturday night.