THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: A ‘forced marriage’ of sorts that worked out quite well in hoops this year

Many years, basketball games between the 5A and 6A teams in the Inland Empire League were one-sided. 

A lot of 76-27-ish beatdowns. 

This year, the games were quite a bit more competitive, and way more fun to watch. 

A little background ... 

SOME CONSIDER the Inland Empire League a seven-team league. 

But it’s also a three-team 6A IEL and a four-team 5A IEL. 

Two different leagues, playing for two different championships, trying to qualify for two different state tournaments. 

But most of the school’s athletic directors thought it was important than the 6A and 5A teams played each other. 

One reason was scheduling — with both leagues being small, there were plenty of nonleague games that had to be found anyway. Playing each other helped. 

So in soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball, all seven IEL teams play each other. 

But to make playing each other worthwhile, these 6A vs. 5A games had to mean something. 

Some years, ADs decided all games would count toward seeding to each league’s state-qualifying tournaments. 

That meant a 6A vs. 5A game meant as much as a 6A vs. 6A game. 

Last year, 5A Lakeland’s girls basketball team swept 5A Sandpoint in its two league matchups. But Sandpoint did better against the 6As than Lakeland, and earned the right to host the district playoffs, where Sandpoint beat Lakeland twice at home to advance to state. 

Lakeland stayed home. 

SO THIS year, ADs changed it up. 

The 6A vs. 5A games still counted — but only as the first tiebreaker, if teams were tied in their respective 6A IEL and 5A IEL leagues, and they split their league matchups. 

When 5A Lewiston’s boys won at 6A Post Falls a couple of weeks ago, that assured Lake City of the top seed in the 6A District 1 tournament. 

Lake City and Post Falls tied for the 6A IEL title with 3-1 records and split their two league meetings. Lake City won the point-differential tiebreaker over Post Falls, which would have been used had both teams swept their four games vs. 5A IEL schools. 

And the coaches knew going in the importance of these “crossover” games. 

"I’ve got smart kids; high IQ,” Post Falls boys coach Jayson Ulrich said. "We try to talk through as many scenarios as possible, and what every game means. You have to take care of the 5As, that’s the deal.” 

So that meant Lake City would have had to lose at least once to the 5A schools for Post Falls to have a chance at the top seed. But once Lewiston beat the Trojans, that clinched it for Lake City. 

Lewiston, as it turned out, went 2-1 vs. the 6A IEL schools, also winning at Coeur d’Alene. The Bengals used to be in the state’s top classification, but dropped to 5A in 2024, the first year of the latest two-year classification cycle. 

Sandpoint also could have affected the 6A IEL race. The Bulldogs gave Post Falls all it wanted before the Trojans prevailed at home, 68-66. Sandpoint also played two close games vs. Coeur d’Alene, one a true “nonleague game.” 

“For us to compete against these 6As like we have ... it's making us better," Sandpoint boys coach Will Love, the former Bulldog girls coach, told the Bonner County Daily Bee. 

(For consistency’s sake, this year all the 6A vs. 5A boys games were played at the 6A school; all the girls games were at the 5A school.) 

ON THE girls’ side, Coeur d’Alene rolled through the 6A IEL, sweeping Post Falls and Lake City. But Moscow gave the bigger schools fits, beating Post Falls, losing by just three to Coeur d’Alene, and taking Lake City to overtime. But because there were no ties in the 6A IEL, those results weren’t needed. 

Sandpoint’s girls, who reached the state 5A championship game last weekend, lost by just nine points to Coeur d’Alene, which reached the 6A semifinals, and beat Post Falls and Lake City. 

Lakeland, which finished third in 5A, lost by 11 to Coeur d’Alene, and beat Post Falls and Lake City. 

So while in the end, the 6A vs. 5A games didn’t necessarily impact seeding for the state-qualifying tournaments, they could have, which was the intention of the ADs setting the tiebreakers up the way they did.

And even better, many of the games were competitive, which hasn’t always been the case. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.