Here's what the girls basketball postseason's going to look like for the Big 3 from BNC

The last Associated Press rankings of the regular season were released and so, too, were the seeds for the upcoming regionals, which sends a signal to all involved: We are headed down the backstretch of the girls basketball season.

And three teams from the Big Northern Conference are poised and ready to make some noise this postseason.

"I think there are a lot of teams from this area that are really looking forward to this postseason," said Eric Yerly, the head coach of Byron, which clinched the BNC conference title this week. "It's just going to be exciting for a lot of teams."

While the brackets don't come out until later this weekend, here is a breakdown of what the Big 3 from the BNC can expect with the latest information.

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T-No. 10-ranked (2A) Stillman Valley (25-4, 8-1 BNC)

Stillman Valley, which handled Lutheran 61-50 on Tuesday to secure second place in the league this year, moved up and was ranked in a tie for 10th in Class 2A. The Cardinals were ahead of Byron, which was not ranked in the latest 2A poll, despite losing to the Tigers 56-52 earlier in the season.

Stillman Valley was also ahead of Byron in the regional seeds. The Cardinals are at Sterling Newman next Thursday and then at Serena on Friday, and then they jump into the postseason, which kicks off on Feb. 12. And they will leap in with the No. 1 seed in Oregon's Sub-Sectional B.

Unranked (2A) Byron (18-6, 9-0 BNC)

Even though this is the one team out of the Big 3 from the BNC that is not ranked in the latest polls, Byron sewed up its second conference title in a row this week. The Tigers rolled over North Boone 52-23, and Byron soared to the undefeated BNC conference title.

Now they will attempt to get back to the 2A state championship game; and, they hope, go one win better than their second-place effort of last year. Byron has the second seed, behind Stillman Valley, in the Oregon Sub-Sectional B.

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"It's just going to be such a tough road this year," Yerly said of Byron's trek to state. "We're just going to worry about what's right in front of us, and go from there."

T-No. 9-ranked (1A) Lutheran (19-7, 4-3 BNC)

Lutheran, which was scheduled to play Winnebago on Thursday night, lost to both Byron and Stillman Valley this season, but the Crusaders also have big wins over NIC-10 teams from Harlem and Belvidere, as well as a 47-point victory over Rockford Christian just last week.

Lutheran still has to play Oregon, Boylan and Galena next week before the postseason tips off. And this time around, the Crusaders will be playing in 1A when the playoffs tip off.

Once there, though, the Crusaders will take the No. 4 seed in the Lena-Winslow Sub-Sectional B, behind top-seeded Orangeville, No. 2 Freeport Aquin and No. 3 Pecatonica.

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Stillman Valley, Byron and Lutheran girls ready for IHSA postseason