THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: Right or wrong for Post Falls girls, it's what we've got now

It’s a crime.

It’s not right.

It’s not fair.

Right or wrong, it’s the way that it goes sometimes.

FOR THE record, no crimes were actually committed on Thursday night, but the 66-59 loss by Post Falls ended its girls basketball season.

Once promising with a 17-0 start, Post Falls lost six of its final seven games to conclude the season.

The losses, albeit defeats, came at the hands of Coeur d’Alene (twice) and Lake City (four times), with the lone win on Tuesday against Lewiston in the 5A Region 1 tournament.

Coeur d’Alene, on a 11-game winning streak, will be the top seed in the state 5A tournament starting Thursday at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. Lake City, with a win today over Eagle in a play-in game at Lewiston High, will either be the second or third seed depending on the outcome of another play-in between Thunder Ridge of Idaho Falls and Mountain View of Meridian.

That’s correct, the Vikings and Timberwolves could lay claim to being the top two programs in the state this season by the end of tonight should Thunder Ridge lose.

Earlier this season, Post Falls knocked off Eagle (60-50) and Mountain View (60-51) in separate trips to the Boise area. The Trojans also own a nonleague win at Rocky Mountain (51-46) of Meridian. The Grizzlies finished runner-up in the District 3 tournament on Thursday, falling 49-47 to Boise.

Boise’s two losses came at Lake City (73-62) in the season opener on Nov. 11, then again to Rocky Mountain (45-42) at home on Jan. 21.

THIS YEAR, to qualify for the state basketball tournament, only the district champion in Region 1 and a combined District 5-6 (Idaho Falls-Pocatello area) were guaranteed a spot at state, with four automatic bids up for grabs in District 3 (Boise area). With play-in games today, it’s possible District 3 could have six teams at state, with wins over Lake City (Region 1 runner-up) and Thunder Ridge (District 5-6 runner-up).

Although Post Falls was seventh in the final MaxPrep rankings, which are used to seed the tournament, since they didn’t qualify through regionals, the Trojans' season is over.

“We’re still one of the top teams in the state,” first-year Post Falls coach Brian Hall said. “Unfortunately, we’ve got the state of Ada down there that gets six teams in and we get two. I might think about asking the Idaho High School Activities Association to do a 10-team tournament with the top eight teams and two at-large bids. All you’d have to do is have the top two seeds have a bye and have the other eight teams play their way in. And they’re all about having more teams participate, but it’s just unfortunate that we don’t get to go.”

That being said …

“Lake City outlasted us and deserved to go,” Hall said. “They took advantage of our turnovers and they’re moving on. So congratulations to them.”

THERE REALLY might not be a good solution to the argument that a really good team is going to get left out.

Don’t forget, last year, Coeur d’Alene went unbeaten in the Inland Empire League, won its regional opener, then lost two straight to see its season come to a quick end.

No state tournament.

Nothing.

Hall could be on to something with his idea of adding a few more teams to the mix, however.

Not so long ago, the 1A tournament — before the classification was broken into two divisions starting with the 2008-09 season — was a 16-team tournament that started that Wednesday.

No, the state doesn’t need to invite 16 teams again. That could be a few too many schools for a few different reasons.

But after a few years of the MaxPreps rankings, and if there’s a bright idea to tinker with the format, you just never know if things will change once again.

It won’t help now, but it might save future arguments when good teams are left out.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.