Moscow Girls’ A-1 Debut Has Been Auspicious One

Look who’s at the top of the Border League girls basketball standings.

Moscow, the State A-2 powerhouse earlier this decade with four championships in five years, finds itself a win away from capturing the Border title in its first year. Of equal or greater importance is the outright title would give Moscow the top seed going into the A-1 Region I state-qualifying tournament.

Coeur d’Alene (12-4) can capture a share of the league title when Moscow (14-3) visits the Vikings on Friday. Tipoff is at 7:45 p.m.

If CdA wins, tie-breaking criteria will be used to decide regional seeding. Under the tie-breaking criteria, how teams fared against the next-highest seeds would be considered first. A CdA win would bring about a split in the season series between the Bears and the Vikings.

Barring upsets, Lake City (12-5) and Post Falls (11-5) will finish tied for third. But LC will be seeded third and Post Falls fourth because the Timberwolves swept the Trojans.

That’s good news for CdA, which swept LC. Moscow and LC split. That means CdA could be the No. 1 seed and could play all of its regional games at home.

Under such a scenario, Moscow would play all of its games at home except any contest against CdA.

A three-way tie for second could occur if CdA loses to Moscow. If that happens, LC would be the second seed, Post Falls third and CdA would drop to No. 4 under the tie-breaking formula.

Inland Empire League officials opted for a six-team true double-elimination format for the regional tourney rather than having the four lowest-seeded teams play loser-out games for a four-team double-elimination format.

That means all games throughout the tourney will be played at the homes of highest-seeded teams instead of at one site.

The boys will follow the same format.

The girls regional begins Tuesday with three games: No. 6 seed Sandpoint at No. 1 (CdA or Moscow); No. 5 (Lewiston) at No. 2 (CdA or Moscow); and No. 4 (most likely Post Falls) at No. 3 (most likely LC). All games throughout the tourney begin at 7 p.m.

The first championship game will be Feb. 9. The regional champ will advance to state and the runner-up could earn a state berth in a cross-district playoff against the District III (Boise area) third-place team.

The regional girls and boys champs could fare well at state. The 18-game league schedule and expanded regional tourney should make North Idaho’s state qualifiers state-tested.

Two weeks ago, it appeared the boys Border League title would come down to a tug of war between the Valleys - West and East. Both were undefeated at 7-0.

The Spokane Valley teams have fallen back to the pack. Or, as North Idaho’s teams would contend, they’ve brought EV and WV back to the pack.

EV remains in first place at 9-2. But WV, reeling from three straight losses, is 8-3. Lake City has moved into third at 10-4, but more importantly, the Timberwolves rank ahead of a den of contenders. Lewiston is next at 8-4, followed by Sandpoint (7-5) and Moscow (7-6).

It’s hard to determine which Panhandle team has the easiest remaining schedule. Consider:

LC is at Moscow on Friday, at home against Lewiston (Feb. 6), at Sandpoint (Feb. 9) before concluding at home against Coeur d’Alene (Feb. 11).

Lewiston is at Cheney on Saturday, home against CdA (Feb. 5), at LC (Feb. 6), at Moscow (Feb. 9) before finishing with back-to-back home games against Post Falls (Feb. 12) and Sandpoint (Feb. 13).

Sandpoint is at home Friday (Cheney) and Saturday (EV), at Post Falls (Feb. 4), at home against Moscow (Feb. 6), at home against LC (Feb. 9) before closing at Lewiston (Feb. 13).

Moscow is at CdA tonight, at home Saturday against LC, at Sandpoint (Feb. 6), at home against Lewiston (Feb. 9) and finishes at Post Falls (Feb. 13).

LC has the fewest remaining games (4). Lewiston and Sandpoint each have six left, four of which are at home.