Post-season basketball tournament play for all four varsity basketball teams in the county began this week.

The Lincoln County boys and girls teams both finished in third place and enter the Southern Division III tournament at Spring Valley High this Friday and Saturday as the No. 3 seed.

The Pahranagat Valley girls, who won their sixth consecutive regular season league title, and as the No. 1 seed for the league tournament, had a first round bye and begin play tonight at Chaparral High in Las Vegas.

The Pahranagat Valley boys (14-6, 8-2, 49.2 ppg), who were third place in the league, had a first round game with Word of Life (5-13, 4-6, 54.3 ppg) in Alamo Wednesday night, and the outcome of that game determines if they move on to the Friday and Saturday games.

The Alamo teams play the semi-finals Friday at Chaparral High, then move over to Spring Valley High for the finals.

In fact, the Division I-A, Division III and Division IV finals are all at Spring Valley this Saturday.

Looking at each team, the Lincoln County boys (13-12, 12-4, 55.1 ppg), on a seven-game win streak, return to the playoffs after missing last year. They were the league, tournament, and state champions in 2013, and have been in the post-season 16 of the last 18 years, and won three state titles in that period.They will face The Meadows (16-6, 12-3, 64.5 ppg)) in the league semi-finals Friday at 4:40 p.m. The teams split their two games this season, each winning on the other?s home court.

It was against The Meadows in the 2013 league semi-finals that Ryan Rippetoe had the 75-foot game winning 3-pointer in overtime that propelled the Lynx on to the state championship.

Coach Matt Cameron said he expected the team had ?a good chance to be at where we are at. I knew Agassi Prep (the defending Division III state champion), would be on top of our league and The Meadows would be right behind them and the rest of us would be fighting for the other spots (in the four-team league playoffs). I think we are peaking at the right time.?

He said the team is ?defending the big guys down low a lot better. Charlie Scott has really stepped up there, and offensively we have picked up our game a bit more, and that?s what?s made the difference.?

The Lincoln County girls (19-6, 13-3, 52.6 ppg), the three time defending league tournament champions, will face No. 2 seed White Pine (14-3, 13-2, 47.0 ppg)) in the semi-finals Friday at 3:00 p.m. No. 1 seed Needles (23-5, 15-1, 47.7 ppg) plays The Meadows (11-7, 9-6, 44.7 ppg) at 6:20 p.m.

Coach Lori Cheeney said, ?The girls have done pretty much what we expected them to do in playing with and matching up with the competition. As a team, we are running a more complex offense and done it well. All of them have improved more on their fundamentals and are tweaking each one bit by bit.?

The Pahranagat Valley girls, the defending Division IV state champions, completed their second undefeated league season (fifth in the last six seasons), something that did not seem like a possibility after losing a fine quartet of players to graduation.

Coach Amy Huntsman said she expected the team to be ?pretty tough. We are young, -two seniors, no juniors- and it was going to be a matter of whether we could put things together with this young group. I knew we were talented and it was whether I could get us to play as a team, which we are doing. We have spent a lot of time on team building activities and they have grown up a lot, too. We are passing the ball better, moving the ball better, talking more. Our offense has finally started to shoot well?and defensively we have figured out where people fit and what we do well.?

The Alamo girls (13-10, 9-0, 40.5 ppg), as the No. 1 seed in the Friday semi-finals, will play either Tonopah (6-15, 5-4) or Lund (5-7, 5-4) at 6:20 p.m. at Chaparral High.

For the Round Mountain girls (12-11), a win in the semi-finals against Beaver Dam or Sandy Valley would earn them their first spot in the state tournament since 1999.

The PVHS boys, who had a tough year last season after four straight state championship seasons, have moved to the point now of being a serious contender.

Coach Mike Strong said ?The kids have certainly improved, and we still have a ways to go. I think defensively we have done a pretty good job throughout the year and have definitely gotten better understanding who can do what, and we?ve gotten better at rebounding and the kids have certainly bought into the concept of getting everybody after those 50-50 balls and really competing against those teams that really have some quickness and speed. To their credit, they work really hard so we hope something good happens for them.?

NIAA tournament prices will apply to all playoff games.

On another note of interest, the NIAA, at their realignment committee meeting Feb. 11 in Las Vegas, decided to recommended to change the nomenclature of the current divisions, back to Class 4A (largest), 3A, 2A and 1A (smallest), which are still listed in the Nevada Administrative Code.

In addition, the committee recommended that White Pine be moved from the South to the North for the 2016-17 school year. White Pine was moved to the South for the 2014-15 season.