Quick hits

Looking ahead

The Coeur d’Alene High girls basketball team can accomplish two key things with a win tonight.

The Vikings (13-5 overall, 8-2 league) can capture their second straight Inland Empire League championship, and they can lock up the No. 1 seed to the 5A Region I tournament when they visit Post Falls at The Arena. Tipoff is at 6.

If CdA locks up the top regional seed, that would mean that Lake City (9-9, 6-4) would play host to Lewiston (7-12, 2-9) in a loser-out regional opener Tuesday at 7. The top seed and the loser-out survivor would face off in a best-of-3 series to decide the region’s automatic state berth. The runner-up also can earn a state berth in a later play-in game.

“Post Falls (10-9, 6-5), meanwhile, has suffered back-to-back league losses since pulling within a game of CdA last week. The Trojans need help if they’re going to secure the No. 1 seed to the 4A Region I tournament.

Moscow (7-10, 6-4) is 5-0 against 4A teams and needs just one win in its final two games to secure the top regional seed. Moscow plays host to Lake City (9-9, 6-4) on Friday and Sandpoint (7-10, 3-6) visits on Saturday.

The 4A Region I tourney will use a different format this year. The tourney will be held at a neutral site the first two nights. It begins Feb. 3 at either LC or CdA and the title game will be played Feb. 4 at LC. The regional champ advances to state and the runner-up can earn a state berth in a play-in game.

“The Bonners Ferry girls (12-5, 6-0), who have run off five consecutive victories, can capture the Intermountain League championship when they visit Priest River (10-8, 4-2) Saturday.

The IML’s 3A District I tournament begins Feb. 6 at Timberlake High School. The district champ advances to state while the runner-up can earn a berth in a play-in game.

“The Wallace girls (16-1, 7-0) can wrap up the North Star League championship and the District I top seed when they visit Kootenai (13-4, 6-1) Saturday.

Wallace defeated Kootenai in the first league matchup 59-47. The Miners also defeated the Warriors 62-44 in the title game at the St. Regis (Mont.) tourney in December. The District I tournament begins Feb. 6, and the top two teams advance to state.

Looking around

The Inland Empire League boys basketball teams feature some interesting matchups this week, beginning tonight when Coeur d’Alene (7-7, 2-4), fresh off its 73-62 upset of league-leading Lewiston last Saturday, visits Post Falls (10-4, 4-3). Tipoff is at 7:45.

The Vikings, who are in sixth place, hope to use the momentum from the win at Lewiston to start climbing up the conference standings.

In games Friday, Lake City (5-9, 3-3) visits Moscow (10-5, 5-2) and Lewiston (14-1, 5-1) travels to Sandpoint (8-7, 3-4). Both games begin at 7:30.

In games Saturday, Post Falls visits LC at 5, and Sandpoint is at CdA at 6.

Wrestling

The fourth annual KWAL George Wild tournament will be held Friday and Saturday at Kellogg High School.

The field includes all five Intermountain League teams, Coeur d’Alene, Lake City, Lakeland, American Falls, Payette and Orofino. AF took second earlier this month at the respected Rollie Lane tourney in Nampa. Bonners Ferry is the defending Wild champ. Each team has two duals on Friday, beginning at 4 p.m. Individual winners and losers will be seeded into championship and consolation brackets on Saturday. The title matches will be at 5 p.m.

“The latest state rankings were released Wednesday and eight area athletes are rated atop their respective weights. They are: 5A, Titus Turner of Lake City (152) and Mark Skogrand of Lewiston (heavyweight); 4A, Tim Pepperdine of Sandpoint (103), Joey Fio of Sandpoint (125), Zach Horsley of Lakeland (140), Kyle Meschko of Sandpoint (145); and 3A, David Hayes of Bonners Ferry (140) and Adam Hall of BF (145).

Hall, who is 29-0 overall and has won 106 straight matches, recently dropped from 152 to 145.