By DAN BISER

The East Columbus Gators and West Columbus Vikings, both riding huge waves of momentum after claiming championships of their respective conference tournaments last week, will open state 1A basketball playoff action today at Kenansville.

Both the Gators and Vikings earned first round byes as top seeds from their respective conferences. East Columbus is ranked seventh among the state’s 1A teams in the current NCpreps.com poll and West Columbus is ranked ninth.

East Columbus, the regular-season and tournament champion of the Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference, will take on Spring Creek in today’s 4 p.m., Sectional 4 semi-final at Kenansville’s Kenan Auditorium. Spring Creek took an 81-77 double-overtime victory over host James Kenan in Tuesday night’s opening round.

Coach Mark Bridgers’ East Columbus squad has a 19-5 record and is carrying a 17-game winning streak. The Gators went unbeaten against all Waccamaw Conference opposition this season, claiming the first boys regular-season basketball championship in the school’s 13-year history and only its second conference tournament title. The Gators topped regular-season runnerup Whiteville in the tournament championship, giving them a three-game season sweep over the Wolfpack for the first time ever.

West Columbus, now 22-3 with an 11-game winning streak, will take on Jones Senior tonight at 7 in the Sectional 3 semi-final Kenan Auditorium. Jones Senior advanced Tuesday in a 70-66 comeback thriller over visiting Heide Trask.

Coach Michael Powell’s Vikings finished runnerup in the Southeastern 1A-2A Conference regular season race, but they beat regular-season champion Fairmont for the conference tournament championship last Friday at the Fairmont gym.

A win by East Columbus today would put the Gators it Saturday night’s Sectional 4 championship game at 7 against the winner of tonight’s other semi-final matchup between Lejeune (16-7) and North Johnston (12-8).

A win by West Columbus tonight would put the Vikings in Saturday’s night’s Sectional 3 championship game at 8:30 against the winner of tonight’s other semi-final game between Wallace-Rose Hill (23-2) and Ayden-Grifton (15-8).

Wallace Rose Hill is the state’s top-ranked 1A boys teams in the NCpreps.com poll.

Sectional winners will advance to next week’s Eastern N.C. Regional Tournament play at East Carolina University’s Minges Coliseum at Greenville.