For area girls teams, though, there’s two standard bearers that fit that bill — Negaunee and Ishpeming.

Interestingly, those three teams are all in different divisions of their respective tournaments, the Patriots boys in Division 3, Miners girls in Division 2 and Hematites girls in Division 4.

Marquette has a pretty good boys team, too, but always, just always, faces an extremely tough hill to climb competing in Division 1 against the largest schools in the state.

Still, that gives the area at least one team that could have a potential deep run into the tourney in all four divisions.

Negaunee’s Keira Waterman, right, guards Gladstone’s Lillie Johnson during their high school girls game played at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium in Negaunee on Jan. 27. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

After the boys took center stage in this week just ending, the girls get into their beginning stages of the MHSAA postseason, otherwise known as district tournaments, next week.

Much like the boys, girls tourney games are almost exclusively scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday, though the most common district setups with five teams mean only two teams are in action the first night.

Just two area teams play on Monday, Manistique in a Division 3 district where it will be at Iron Mountain, and Superior Central in a Division 4 game it is hosting against Rapid River.

Meanwhile, the boys tourney advances to the regional level next week, taking the nights the girls are off — regional semifinals will all be on Tuesday night and regional championships on Thursday evening.

Through the district semifinals, only four area boys teams are still alive — Marquette in Division 1, Westwood in Division 3 and Munising and Baraga in separate Division 4 tourneys.

Two regional championships on Thursday night are scheduled in The Mining Journal daily coverage area.

Negaunee is hosting the Upper Peninsula — at least all of the U.P. but the far eastern end — final in Division 4 that potentially could include Munising and/or Baraga if those teams keep winning.

And Newberry hosts a Division 3 final the same night that could include Westwood.

Regional sites, especially finals, have been subject to change in the past, depending on the actual teams that make it to those games.

In the girls districts, while the matchups themselves are pretty self-evident after looking at the brackets on the MHSAA website at www.mhsaa.com, sometimes who the home team is in games beyond the initial matchups isn’t as obvious.

So take the site of games to be tentative, especially as all area districts for girls basketball are “nontraditional” brackets, meaning every game is played at the gym of one of the teams involved in that game.

“Traditional” brackets are the old-time format where all games in a district are played at the host gym, something only employed by one of the 14 districts between boys and girls over these several weeks of tourney basketball.

Here’s the schedule for this week:

Monday

Girls districts

Division 1, hosted by Marquette: Alpena at Traverse City West, 6 p.m.

Division 2, hosted by Negaunee: Escanaba at Houghton, 6 p.m.

Division 3, hosted by Calumet: Ironwood at West Iron County, 7 p.m. EST

Division 3, hosted by Menominee: Manistique at Iron Mountain, 7 p.m. EST

Division 4, hosted by Ishpeming: Rapid River at Superior Central, 6 p.m.

Division 4, hosted by Baraga or Dollar Bay: Lake Linden-Hubbell at Dollar Bay, 6 p.m.

Tuesday

Boys regionals

Division 1 semifinals: Marquette-Traverse City West winner vs. Mount Pleasant-Midland Dow winner, at Gaylord, 6:45 p.m.; Saginaw Heritage-Saginaw United winner vs. Rockford-Muskegon winner, at Alma, 7 p.m.

Division 3 semifinals: Westwood-West Iron County winner vs. Menominee-Iron Mountain winner, at Kingsford, 7:45 p.m. EST; Maple City Glen Lake-Elk Rapids winner vs. Mancelona-East Jordan winner, at Charlevoix, 7 p.m.

Division 4 semifinals: Munising-North Dickinson winner vs. Norway-Forest Park winner, at Kingsford, 6 p.m. EST; Baraga-Dollar Bay winner vs. Bessemer-Wakefield-Marenisco winner, at Houghton, 7 p.m.

Wednesday

Girls districts

Division 1, hosted by Marquette: Alpena-Traverse City West winner at Marquette, 6 p.m.; Traverse City Central at Gaylord, 6 p.m.

Division 2, hosted by Negaunee: Escanaba-Houghton winner at Negaunee, 6 p.m.; Gladstone at Kingsford, 7 p.m. EST

Division 3, hosted by Calumet: Jeffers at Westwood, 6 p.m.; Ironwood-West Iron County winner at Calumet, 6 p.m.

Division 3, hosted by Menominee: Manistique-Iron Mountain winner at Menominee, 7 p.m. EST; Gwinn at Bark River-Harris, 6 p.m. EST

Division 4, hosted by Ishpeming: Superior Central-Rapid River winner at Ishpeming, 6 p.m.; Big Bay de Noc at Munising, 6 p.m.

Division 4, hosted by Baraga or Dollar Bay: Baraga vs. Lake Linden-Hubbell-Dollar Bay winner, at Baraga or Dollar Bay (tentative), 6 p.m.; Hancock at L’Anse, 6 p.m.

Division 4, hosted by Newberry: Engadine at Newberry, 6 p.m.; Rudyard at Brimley, 6 p.m.

Thursday

Boys regionals

Division 1 championship: Marquette-Traverse City West-Mount Pleasant-Midland Dow winner vs. Saginaw Heritage-Saginaw United-Rockford-Muskegon winner, at Lake City, 7 p.m.

Division 3 championship: Westwood-West Iron County-Menominee-Iron Mountain winner vs. Maple City Glen Lake-Elk Rapids-Mancelona-East Jordan winner, at Newberry, 7 p.m.

Division 4 championship: Munising-North Dickinson-Norway-Forest Park winner vs. Baraga-Dollar Bay-Bessemer-Wakefield-Marenisco winner, at Negaunee, 7 p.m.

Friday

Girls districts

Division 1 championship: Marquette-Alpena-Traverse City West winner vs. Gaylord-Traverse City Central winner, at Marquette, Alpena or Traverse City West, 6 p.m. (site & time tentative)

Division 2 championship: Negaunee-Escanaba-Houghton winner vs. Gladstone-Kingsford winner, at Negaunee, Houghton or Escanaba, 6 p.m. (site & time tentative)

Division 3 championship: Westwood-Jeffers winner vs. Ironwood-West Iron County-Calumet winner, at Calumet, West Iron County or Ironwood, 6 or 7 p.m. EST (site & time tentative)

Division 3 championship: Gwinn-Bark River-Harris winner vs. Manistique-Iron Mountain-Menominee winner, at site TBA, 6 or 7 p.m. EST

Division 4 championship: Ishpeming-Superior Central-Rapid River winner vs. Munising-Big Bay de Noc winner, at Ishpeming, Superior Central or Rapid River, 6 p.m. (site & time tentative)

Division 4 championship: Baraga-Lake Linden-Hubbell-Dollar Bay winner vs. L’Anse-Hancock winner, at Baraga, Dollar Bay or Lake Linden-Hubbell, 6 p.m. (site & time tentative)

Division 4 championship: Newberry-Engadine winner vs. Rudyard-Brimley winner, at Newberry or Engadine, 6 p.m. (site & time tentative)

Story contents based on an examination of the MHSAA website at www.mhsaa.com. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.