NEW RICHLAND — As a result of a lack of seeding for two smallest classes of the Minnesota girls’ basketball tournament, the first game of the tournament might seem like the title game to some high school sports fans.

That’s because the two teams with the best records in Class AA play each other Wednesday at the Target Center. The undefeated New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva girls’ basketball team faces the 29-1 team from Braham, a northern Minnesota town about 10 miles west of the Interstate 35 community of Rush City.

The Bombers will play the 30-0 Panthers at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Minneapolis to kick off the Class AA girls’ state basketball tournament.

Braham and NRHEG are the two teams with the fewest losses among the eight teams at state. And it’s the highest-ranked match. According to the Minnesota Basketball News poll, NRHEG finished the regular season ranked second in the state, with Braham third. Providence Academy finished first.

No other ranked teams made state. St. Peter, which NRHEG beat Friday, was ranked eighth.

Across Minneapolis, 24-4 Providence Academy will take on 20-8 Minnehaha Academy at 6 p.m. Wednesday at William Arena on the University of Minnesota campus.

At 8 p.m. 19-11 Pequot Lakes will duke it out with 17-11 Zumbrota-Mazeppa at Williams Arena, while at the same time at the Target Center 25-4 Sauk Centre will face 20-7 Worthington.

The winner of the NRHEG-Braham contest will square off against the winner of the Sauk Centre-Worthington game at 6 p.m. Friday at the Target Center.

The title game is at the Target Center at 2 p.m. Saturday. The consolation contest is at noon Saturday at Concordia University.

The Minnesota State High School League board of directors on Feb. 2, following a push by the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association, voted to seed the top four teams in the Class A and AA boys’ basketball tournament this spring. The change mirrors how the Class AAA and AAAA boys’ and girls’ basketball tournaments are formatted, but the board did not vote on whether to seed the girls’ tourney in the two smallest classes.

That left the Section 2 champ to face the winner of Section 7 at state, no matter how good both teams are. Which section will play which section is planned long in advance, based on a section rotation.

A separate ranking of schools by Minnesota-Scores.net using its own formula called QRF places Providence Academy at the top, with Braham second and NRHEG at sixth. Sauk Centre is seventh, Minnehaha Academy is 17th, Worthington is 18th, Pequot Lakes is 20th and Zumbrota-Mazeppa is 34th.

NRHEG coach John Schultz said the pairings this year should spark a conversation among Minnesota girls’ basketball coaches to ask the Minnesota State High School League to switch to seeding for A and AA.

“This is a prime example of two teams that shouldn’t meet this early,” he said.

Jenny Johnson, the executive director of the Minnesota Girls’ Basketball Coaches Association, told the Tribune last month there is “strong opposition” among the state’s girls’ basketball coaches to seed the smallest two classes. Unlike in Class AAA and AAAA, there are too many schools, which are spread too far apart the state to be able to seed fairly.

The state’s two largest classes include 64 teams each, while the smallest two classes include twice that number.

“In general, coaches say we don’t know enough about each team,” said Johnson, who’s also an assistant principal at Edina High School. “When you get to the state tournament and there are teams from a section way up north and way down south, we don’t feel like we could fairly seed that.”

Schultz said he knows of no “strong opposition” among coaches. He said seeding teams at state wouldn’t be difficult.

“They just need to do a little research. Use the QRF. Use the computers. It’s better than just rotating or by chance,” he said.

Schultz noted how three ranked teams were in Section 2 and two ranked teams were in Section 7. Section 7 had No. 3 Braham and No. 4 Esko. Section 2 had NRHEG, St. Peter and No. 10 Southland. He said it seems off-balance to pile five of the state’s top 10 in two sections and then pit the sectional winners together in the first round of state.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said.