The regular season ends tonight for the high school girls' basketball teams - but there's still plenty of hoops on the horizon.

Suttons Bay will play at Benzie to conclude Northwest Conference play tonight. On Monday, the Norse will open the Class C District at St. Francis against the host Gladiators at 7:30 p.m. Suttons Bay is 2-17 overall, 1-12 in the conference. Coach Fred Wille said while Suttons Bay hasn’t won much this season, the players have kept the team in many of the contests up to the final minutes. “We just haven’t been able to get those final baskets for the win,” he said.

Also, instead of the Norse having a bare minimum of players to field a team,
Wille will be able to bring up players from the junior varsity. “I’m really happy with the draw. We’ve been playing very well over the last six to eight weeks, we just need to keep play at a consistent level,” he said.

If Suttons Bay wins Monday night, it will face Glen Lake in the second round of play on Wednesday at 6 p.m.. Glen Lake and Suttons Bay have played twice this season, with the Lakers winning both, 61-33 and 35-27. Laker coach Pete Woessner said the Norsemen have improved since the season started and he doesn’t consider them a “gimme” game.

“Suttons Bay is playing very well late in the season. We just beat them the last time we hooked up,” he said. Woessner said his Lakers’ squad can’t afford to overlook whichever team comes out of Monday’s district opener.

“We have to win that first game to make into the final on Friday. We like having the bye, it puts us in a good spot,” he said. Assuming either Glen Lake or Suttons Bay advances past Wednesday, the winner will likely face either Charlevoix or East Jordan in the championship.

Leland is hosting the Class D District this year. St. Mary will play Traverse City Christian at 6 p.m. on Monday, with Leland and Northport squaring off at 7:30 p.m. The championship game will be Friday, Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. The Eagles have been the dominant Leelanau girls’ team this season and have only one loss to a county school, Glen Lake. Against Northport, Leland, and T-C Christian, St. Mary has taken early leads and maintained them throughout the game. St. Mary coach Paula Korson said facing Christian for the third time the season will be no easy task.

“We can’t look past them. We just played Christian last night (Tuesday), but we can not take any win for granted,” she said. “We’ve played T-C Christian in the opening round of District play the last two years and only won one,” she said.

Assuming Leland beats Northport to advance to the finals, Korson said playing Leland at home is never easy.

“I won’t be looking past anyone here. Northport and Christian have both improved as the season progressed, and St. Mary is as strong as ever,” Leland coach Jon Kiessel said.

Northport coach Gary Longcore said he’ll also bring up some JV players to beef up his team’s numbers.

“We are playing better, doing a better job on defense. No matter who we play, it will be a challenge for us,” he said.