Two good teams will be disappointed

The 5A Region I girls basketball tournament shapes up to be the most competitive in history.

All four teams could represent this region well at state, and as many as three could challenge for a state championship. But here’s the rub: Just two of the four will go to state.

The regional begins Friday – weather permitting – with two games at Coeur d’Alene. In the opener, No. 3 seed Lake City (14-5) faces No. 2 Post Falls (17-3) at 5:45 and No. 4 Lewiston (10-10) takes on No. 1 Coeur d’Alene (18-2) at 7:30. The tourney continues a week later with the final three games at the sites of the highest seeds.

You only have to go back less than a year, when LC knocked off favored CdA in the state championship game in Nampa, to know that 5A hoops in this region has become second to none in Idaho after years of dominance by Boise-area teams.

Post Falls, which had LC beaten in a loser-out regional game last year before the Timberwolves prevailed in double overtime, thought it should have gone to state last year. In back-to-back games in final regular-season action last week, Post Falls upset CdA 47-44 and followed the next night with a 55-51 win over LC.

So the Trojans went from we-think-we-are contenders to we-know-we-are contenders.

Post Falls’ victories should also give some hope to Lewiston, which upended Post Falls two weeks ago.

Perhaps CdA coach Dale Poffenroth, whose teams at Central Valley won a few games over the years in the Greater Spokane League, knows best how good the four teams are heading into the postseason.

“If you took these four teams and put them in the GSL, they’d all be in the playoffs and they’d push Mead and Lewis and Clark,” Poffenroth said.

As far as Idaho goes, Poffenroth has no doubt that all four could contend for trophies at state. “These are four of the best teams in the state,” he said. “Anybody that doesn’t think so doesn’t watch much basketball.”

The T-Wolves had the most holes to fill from graduation last year. At least LC coach Darren Taylor had the best player in the state back – 6-1 junior post Katie Baker.

The T-Wolves have lost all three games to CdA but were competitive in two – 46-38 in November and 46-33 in the Fight for the Fish that was closer than the final margin.

“Darren’s done a really good job with what he has,” Poffenroth said. “There’s not a whole lot of basketball players after Katie. He’s got a lot of good athletes, but not a lot of basketball players.”

Post Falls’ strength is in five seniors, who have seemingly played together since they were old enough to walk, and sophomore sensation Katelyn Loper.

“It’s anybody’s tournament,” Post Falls coach Chris Johnson said. “I could see anybody beating anybody.”

Taylor agrees.

“It’s going to be a good tournament,” Taylor said. “Lewiston was the only team to beat Post Falls down the stretch. Watch out. Watch out, Coeur d’Alene. Watch out, everybody.”

CdA took a nine-point lead over Post Falls into halftime last Thursday, but the Trojans fought back in the third quarter.

“Post Falls earned the win,” Poffenroth said. “They could have folded their tents after they lost to Lewiston. The first 4 minutes of the third quarter they played better than us. That was the difference.”

City rivals face off again

CdA’s boys (14-2, 8-0) can all but clinch the IEL championship and top regional seed tonight when the Vikings play host to LC (13-3, 7-1).

LC was tabbed the preseason favorite. But CdA handled the T-Wolves in the first league game in December. The T-Wolves earned a small measure of revenge in the non-league Fight for the Fish game earlier this month when they slipped past the Vikings 39-38 in a defensive game at CdA.

CdA coach Kent Leiss knows what his team can accomplish.

“What we’ve been telling (our players) is it’s for the league title,” Leiss said. “We’re playing about as well as we can and Lake City is too.”