The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Feb. 9, 2011

With the local basketball and wrestling seasons winding down, there’s a lot of reasons to get out to the nearest gym near you before it is too late.

Regionals, senior nights and in the case of the NJCAA tournament for the North Idaho College wrestling team at the Spokane Convention Center — it’s safe to say that the following three to four weeks won’t allow for a letdown.

WHEN THE ball was tipped off at Booth Hall on Friday in Lewiston, my guess is that nobody expected a game between Lake City and Coeur d’Alene to be 19-19 at halftime. And with Lake City’s Alyssa Kacalek and Coeur d’Alene’s Erin Legel hitting four 3-pointers apiece in the first half — I figured that the shots were going to keep falling.

That didn’t happen.

At least both teams were going to come out of the half shooting and knocking down shots, right?

Not quite.

Lake City couldn’t buy a basket in the first six minutes of the second half, eventually scoring five points before the third quarter buzzer blared.

The Timberwolf girls eventually found a way to score points late in the game as they scored eight points from the free-throw line to pull away for the 41-35 win.

Later that night, Post Falls jumped out to a lead on top-seeded Lewiston in the early going. While defensively, they did a great job of keeping the game close, on the offensive side of the ball, it was another story.

With a lot of new faces in the lineup this year, the Post Falls team is a little less experienced to the tournament setting. Last year’s go-to player, Katelyn Loper, has been running through the Colonial Athletic Association as a member of the Hofstra Pride and other starters are playing various sports at other universities.

THE ROAD to the NJCAA wrestling tournament in Spokane will start this week for the NIC wrestling team as they travel to the Region 18 tournament at Southwestern Oregon Community College in Coos Bay, Ore.

By way of hosting the tournament, the region gets an additional three bids to nationals.

How this affects the final rounds of the tournament in less than three weeks, will be determined from a local point of view on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the NIC men’s and women’s basketball teams hit the closing stretch of the regular season this weekend with trips to Utah to face Salt Lake and Snow College.

When they played at the beginning of conference play, both Utah schools won, while both Cardinal teams later swept on Rolly Williams Court.

As the regular season draws to a close, the outcome of each game means a lot more.

REGARDLESS OF which team you’re going to be cheering on, now is the time when each team is either playing their best, or they’ll wind up staying home.

Staying home — not the mindset of most teams right now.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via e-mail at [email protected].