Boys’ basketball is the last of the high school winter sports to enter postseason play. The District 4A-11 Tournament starts Monday at Fort Myers High while Island Coast hosts the District 3A-12 Tournament that begins Tuesday.

“Our goal all season was to have a good seeding,” said Mariner coach James Harris. “We’re happy with the No. 2 seed. I like the effort in practice and our recent games.”

The Tritons are looking for their first district championship since the 2002-03 season when they were 28-2. Cape Coral won one title since the Tritons’ last one, but Fort Myers has filled its trophy case with championship hardware all the other years.

“I like the way the tournament is set up for us,” said Harris. “It’ll be a dogfight. It was a huge break for us that Cape was placed on the other side of the bracket.”

The Seahawks, the No. 5 seed, goes against No. 4 Ida Baker in the quarterfinal round Tuesday for a chance to take down the No. 1 Green Wave in Friday’s semifinal round.

“We won’t think about Fort Myers until Wednesday,” said Seahawks coach Mark Rinehart. ” We have a lot of respect for Baker’s talent level. We won at Baker earlier in the season, so it will be a great game. From the start of the season the consensus has been that Fort Myers and Mariner have talent a notch above the rest of us. It will be a tough enough challenge to try to control Baker, but we’re not going away. We will show up.”

The 7-8-9-10 seeds battle it out in the first round Monday night. Riverdale (8) opens against South Fort Myers (9) at 6 p.m. followed by North Fort Myers (7) and Estero (10). The winners advance to the quarterfinals.

Mariner awaits the North-Estero winner in a Wednesday quarterfinal matchup. The Riverdale-South winner earns a shot at Fort Myers Tuesday.

“We won’t take anyone lightly,” said Harris. “Our mantra for all the tournaments has been to survive and advance. It doesn’t matter if it’s pretty or you don’t play your best. Our focus is not on who we play, but play well enough to advance.”

If the Tritons survive the quarterfinals, they would face either Cypress Lake (3) or Lemon Bay (6) in the semifinal round. They would not come across the Green Wave until Saturday’s championship game. By then, they will be assured of a berth in the regional playoffs.

“We know all four teams we might face to get to the championship game,” said Harris. “Then we have to find a way to beat Fort Myers.”

In the five-team District 3A-12 Tournament, Island Coast is in the same situation as Mariner. The Gators are the No. 2 seed with a bye into the semifinals, slated for Wednesday, against No. 3 Dunbar.

On the other side of the bracket, No. 1 Bishop Verot awaits the winner of the first-round tussle between LaBelle (4) and Gateway Charter (5).

“We worked really hard this season, after losing to Bishop Verot, to be the No. 2 seed,” said Gators coach Greg Coleman. “We finished the district season so early that we used the rest of our games to prepare for Dunbar. Our next goal was to finish the season at or over .500 (record).”

Dunbar is much improved since the start of the season, so it won’t be easy for the Gators to advance.

“They are a tough out,” Coleman said. “We have a tough time matching up with Verot, so our aim is to get to the championship game to continue on to the regionals.”