Craig Reid finds difficulty in ranking the best Civil War games in his 14 years as Mountain View’s boys basketball coach.

Understandable. Each one can be great for different reasons, whether it is a Dameon Nowlin buzzer-beating 3-pointer to deal visiting Bend High its first loss of the season in 2001, or the Lava Bears going on the road in 2011 to best the Cougars 65-47 and end the regular season as the top-ranked team in Class 5A.

But tonight’s Civil War matchup at Bend High could rank among the best ever played since the two programs first met some 35 years ago.

Mountain View, No. 4 in the latest OSAA Class 5A rankings, takes a nine-game winning streak across town to face No. 6 Bend, which rides its own five-game run. The Cougars, winners in 16 of their last 17 games, and the Lava Bears, victors in 13 of their last 14 contests, both are 7-1 in Intermountain Conference play — each beat the other once; both times the home team prevailed.

The IMC title is on the line tonight at Bend High, the Civil War, the final game of the regular season.

“It’s always a blast,” says Reid, whose teams have won 20 of the previous 25 matchups against Bend, including eight of the last nine. “But how fun it will be (tonight) will be determined by how well we play.”

Last month, Bend snapped a seven-game skid in the series with Mountain View, defeating the Cougars 70-56 at home. Earlier this month, Mountain View returned the favor, dealing the Lava Bears a 58-46 defeat. No. 4 Mountain View meets up with No. 6 Bend tonight at 7 p.m. — a landmark of a matchup with the state playoffs just around the corner.

“The IMC (title) is big,” Reid says. “But to us, it’s a steppingstone to state.”

Teams ranked in the top eight of the final 5A rankings (which will be set on Saturday night) are guaranteed home games in the first round of the state playoffs, and Bend and Mountain View are in position to be among the Class 5A elite.

“Honestly, we try not to overemphasize the importance of the game itself and focus on the details we have to get done to perform well,” Reid says. “If you overhype the result and the ramifications, then the kids can tend to seize up a little bit both mentally and physically.”

—Reporter: 541-383-0307,glucas@bendbulletin.com.