NATCHEZ — With the excitement of a rare blanket of snow that covered the Miss-Lou the past few days, some pretty good basketball teams are being overlooked.

Postseason tournaments in the MAIS are in full force while the MHSAA schools are finishing up their region tournaments and getting ready for state.

LHSAA schools still have another week to go before their postseason tournament begins, but a couple of local teams already know they will be in with good seeds.

There are three local teams that have a legitimate chance to bring home a state championship, and two of them are at the same school.

The Trinity Episcopal boys have both enjoyed strong seasons and both made the Class A South State finals.

The Lady Saints dominated Riverdale for three quarters and built up an 18-point lead, but were outscored 32-8 in the final quarter and dropped a 56-50 heartbreaker.

However, they will still advance to the State tournament, where they will have just as good a chance as anybody to win the thing, thanks to their lockdown defense and tenacious attitude.

The Trinity boys, meanwhile were blown out in the MAIS Class A South State championship game against Claiborne Academy, losing 61-32.

The Saints have played a very difficult non-district schedule, going 8-7 against those opponents.

However, all seven of those losses came to either AA or AAA schools.

When they have played Class A schools, there hasn’t been anyone who can beat them.

And that bodes well for the Saints, who are attempting to pull off a historic double, winning the football state championship in the fall and basketball state championship in the winter.

Across the river, the Vidalia Vikings are just waiting for the playoffs to get here.

The Vikings (24-4) haven’t lost a game in over a month and are a perfect 11-0 in District 3-3A, with almost all of those games being blowouts.

Vidalia was a No. 2 seed and advanced to the state championship game last season and this year, with most everybody back, the Vikings are hoping to take the final step.

Vidalia should be seeded in the top five if not top three, which is a good start to getting back to the Cajundome in Lafayette, La., for the Top 28 Tournament.

While those are the top teams in the area, there are still several other teams who are looking to make some noise in the playoffs.

Natchez High’s girls and boys both advanced to the South State tournament play-in game, and the Lady Bulldogs would like nothing better than to get back to Jackson for the State tournament again this year.

Cathedral’s boys and girls teams also advanced to the South State play-in game, as well as the Jefferson County boys, Franklin County girls and Wilkinson County boys and girls.

But no matter how far each of these teams go in the postseason, they have all enjoyed a great year and have given their fans plenty to cheer about.