BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) &045; High school basketball games will run four minutes longer next season in Minnesota.

On a 12-7 vote, the Minnesota State High School League opted Monday to switch from the current system of four eight-minute quarters to two 18-minute halves.

The board also approved an eight-team state tournament in Class 1A girls’ hockey starting in 2007. The small-school tournament currently has only four teams because the sport has 126 teams total, two short of the league’s guidelines for two eight-team fields. The Class 2A tournament for bigger schools already has an eight-team format.

The league approved longer basketball games despite concerns that it might cost schools more money and lead to more lopsided games.

&uot;I’m really happy,&uot; said Pat Barrett, Fridley’s girls’ basketball coach. &uot;This will be good for our game because it will give good kids a chance to play more and more kids a chance to play.&uot;

Just as pleased was Ron Larson, the boys’ basketball coach at St. Francis.

&uot;This is something boys’ and girls’ basketball coaches have been working on hard for two, three years,&uot; Larson said. He said a 2004 fall survey of coaches statewide indicated 70 percent of them favored longer games.

Minnesota will be the first state to go to longer halves.

The league had asked the National Federation of State High School Associations for permission to try 18-minute halves as an experiment. In April, the federation’s basketball rules committee told the league it was not interested in lengthening games but said Minnesota could try going to halves.

Kevin Merkle, the league associate director in charge of boys’ basketball, said a survey indicated that some game officials’ associations would ask for more money, but others would not.

The league’s sports medicine advisory committee had no concerns about longer games, Merkle said, adding &uot;they’d be OK with 20-minute halves.&uot;

Still, it was a difficult vote for some board members, such as Warroad’s Warren Keller, a member of the Minnesota Basketball Coaches’ Hall of Fame.

&uot;Are blowouts going to get bigger by adding four minutes?&uot; he asked. &uot;… I grapple with this one. I can see both sides.&uot;

Five Class A region committees, whose teams play in either Class 1A or 2A, opposed longer games, expressing concern that their teams might not have enough players.

But Merkle said hockey games have been extended and it wasn’t an issue. Football games also are longer now, he said, because the clock stops more. And he said that if the change doesn’t work for basketball, the league can revert to the old system.

&uot;Basketball is a short game,&uot; Merkle said. &uot;The average length is 1 hour, 24 minutes and some games are as short as 1 hour, 15 minutes.&uot;

The 18-minute halves will be used only for varsity games. Junior varsity teams and younger teams still will play only 32 minutes, Merkle said, except in two halves, not quarters.

&uot;We watched the length of games in other sports increase,&uot; Wayzata athletic director Jaime Sherwood said. &uot;But it costs $6 to $8 for a ticket to a basketball game, and we have higher participation fees. The attitude among players and fans was they were not getting enough bang for their buck.&uot;