Basketball fans will be treated to a cage classic today when the Bemidji girls and boys cagers host Alexandria at the Field House.
Action will begin at 1.
Meanwhile the girls hockey team opens post season play, entertaining Brainerd in the quarterfinals of the Section 8AA tournament at 7 at Nymore Gardens.
It matches the second seeded Bemidji sextet against the seventh ranked Warriors.
They met once this year with Bemidji winning 6-2 at home with six different players scoring and the defense limiting Brainerd to only 15 shots.
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Brainerd is 9-13-2 this y ear.
The second meeting between the pair, a replay of an earlier postponement, was cancelled Tuesday when the two were matched in the opening round of the playoffs.
Tonight's winner advances to a Tuesday night semifinal at the higher seed to face the winner of the Moorhead-St. Cloud opener at Moorhead tonight.
Other openers tonight send River Lakes to Roseau and Sartell to North Wright County.
Maria Thompson, who has started all but five of Bemidji's 24 games, will be in goal tonight.
Bemidji has gotten double figure scoring from all six skaters on its first two lines with the defense providing a strong 43 points topped by Emily Larson's 15.
Opening gem
Cage fans should arrive early for the 1 p.m. opener between the third and fourth ranked teams in Class 3A.
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Bemidji is third with an 18-1 record after its comeback win over Moorhead Thursday.
Alex is fourth at 17-3, span king Apollo 58-36 Thursday.
Bemidji took last year's clash at Alex 72-56 behind a 29-point effort from Kayla Hirt.
She will match points today with Angela Christianson, a 2,000 point scorer headed to Drake next winter.
She is best remembered for her 54 point explosion here in the 2008 playoffs, a game eventually pulled out by Bemidji in the final minute.
Kelsey Heisler, who has reached double figures in three of her past four starts, will roam the baseline with Erika Weimann, Megan Huseby and Abby Hendricks around the perimeter.
Freshmen Kenzie Kane and Jess Yost will be first off the bench joined by Selina Gilbertson and Caitlin Gangelhoff.
The boys will be seeking to snap a three game losing skid against the Cardinals who come to town with a 7-9 record. well down in the CLC standings.
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Bemidji has dropped to 11-7 after its six-game win streak.
It was outrun and outgunned 88-63 at Duluth East Thursday after losses to Moorhead and Sartell.
Bemidji will go with Grant Richardson in the post flanked by Dan Frost and Ryan Rude along the baseline and the Woods brothers outside.
Josh Kane, Harley Kroening, Mitch Brown and Cody Rutledge are the most used reserves.
Bemidji won last year's meeting 54-52 at Alex.
The B Team is 12-6 and the C Team 3-11.
