DULUTH - North Woods has won both meetings with Mountain Iron-Buhl this season. But that doesn’t matter now.

On the flip side, neither does last year’s Section 7A championship showdown, won by Mountain Iron-Buhl.

All that matters is tonight.

The 28-1, top-seeded Grizzlies will square off against the 25-4, second-seeded Rangers for this year’s Section 7A championship at the University of Minnesota-Duluth at 7 p.m.

North Woods edged Mountain Iron-Buhl in a 77-76 thriller at the North Woods tournament on Dec. 31, then added a 66-55 road win on Jan. 13.

Those meetings account for two of the Rangers’ four losses, with one other defeat coming against Virginia, the only team to top North Woods this season, and the other coming against 27-1 Nevis.

It was a similar situation last year, with North Woods sweeping a pair of regular season meetings, only for Mountain Iron-Buhl to win 78-66 in the section finals.

Any lingering thoughts from that outcome have long since passed, though, according to North Woods head coach Will Kleppe.

“We look forward to playing MIB in the finals again,” Kleppe said. “There is nothing from last year’s finals that we are thinking about as we get ready.”

And you can throw the two regular season meetings out the window as well.

As nail-biting as those two contests were, the stakes this time are dramatically higher.

“We expect a good game,” Kleppe said. “MIB will do their best to control the tempo of the game, just as we will.”  

The winner moves on to the state tournament, running from Thursday - Saturday, March 23 - 25.

The Class A quarterfinals are on Thursday at the University of Minnesota’s Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

The semifinals are on Friday and the finals are on Saturday, both at Target Center in Minneapolis.

The consolation semifinals are on Friday, with the third place and consolation championship games both on Saturday, all at Concordia University in St. Paul.