Its been 12 years since the Big Sky Conference basketball tournaments have been played at Hermiston High School but theyre back now.

Regarded as one of the toughest Class 1A conferences in Oregon, the top six Big Sky boys and girls teams will duke it out inside The Dawg House for a spot in the Class 1A state playoffs, and ultimately a trip to Baker City for the Class 1A tournament.

Both boys and girls tournaments will begin Thursday and culminate with state-seeding and district championship games Saturday.

Last seasons girls champion, Nixyaawii, failed to qualify for the tournament this season while Horizon Christian from Hood River, the boys champ last year, will be gunning to repeat.

The Big Sky is an 11-team conference split into two divisions, East and West, and the top three teams from each half will compete this weekend.

From the East division on the boys side, Ione earned the No. 1 seed with an 11-3 conference mark and had Echo on its heels nearly the entire year. Echo finished 10-4 and is the No. 2 seed.

A late-season surge from Condon-Wheeler was enough to give them the No. 3 seed. They finished the league schedule at 7-7.

Last season, no East divisions teams moved on to the state playoffs.

Coming out of the West divisions are perhaps two of Class 1As top title contenders in Sherman County (14-1) and Horizon Christian (12-3).

Shermans only league loss came in a 68-66 barn-burner to Echo while Horizon has lost to Sherman twice and Ione.

The biggest surprise of the year is upstart Arlington (8-7) sneaking into the tournament after a tailspinning South Wasco County lost to Ione on Saturday.

While the teams were tied at 8-7, Arlington held the tiebreaker with a sweep of two league games against the Redsides.

On the girls side, undefeated and Class 1A No. 1 Condon-Wheeler (14-0) will flex its muscle as the Easts No. 1 seed. Ione (12-2) is the East No. 2 seed while Echo (8-6) is the No. 3 seed.

From the West, Dufur is the top team with a 13-2 record. They lost to Condon-Wheeler and Ione during the regular season.

Sherman County turned its season around to go 10-5 in the conference and earn the No. 2 spot while Horizon Christian is the No. 3 seed.

The No. 1 seeds receive byes to the conference semifinals Friday while the No. 2 and 3 seeds play in loser-out quarterfinal ballgames Thursday.

On Saturday, the three state playoffs teams will be decided.

First-round action begins at 3 p.m. Thursday. One-day ticket prices are $8 for adults and $4 for students. Two-day passes are $14 for adults and $7 for students while all-tournament tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students.

The Hermiston Sports Boosters are hosting the event, which is sponsored by Columbia State Bank.