The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Feb. 22, 2012

At a state baskeball tournament, sometimes you've got to expect the unexpected.

Saturday afternoon one of those days.

THERE WAS no way to predict the outcome for the Timberlake Tigers once they arrived at the state 3A tournament last Thursday in Middleton.

Losing three seniors, including two key pieces to a puzzle that had them just four minutes from a championship last season - a return shot at a championship wasn't what a lot of Tiger fans expected this season, but they got it.

Timberlake ran past Salmon to open the tournament and found a way in double overtime to beat Snake River, a team they also beat on the way to the championship game the previous season.

It is likely that the only people that really believed they'd be back at the Idaho Center were the pep band, cheerleaders, parents and those wearing their Timberlake jerseys.

Just before the game was to begin, tournament officials and referees noticed part of the floor at the Idaho Center had shifted and the game was delayed. Security and Idaho Center officials surveyed the court and eventually had to move some of the media tables and use a sledgehammer to put the floor back in place.

And while they found themselves down early in the championship game, they rallied to make it close before Marsh Valley eventually pulled away to cap their unbeaten season.

While I watched a handful of teams walk off the court disappointed on Saturday - that wasn't the case for Timberlake.

They were thrilled to finished second, and were mostly smiles once awarded the runner-up trophy at the Idaho Center.

WHILE TIMBERLAKE had a run to the title game, the Coeur d'Alene Vikings had their run to a seventh-straight championship game derailed in the semifinals.

Things couldn't have gone any better on Thursday, rolling past Meridian by 41 points in a game where everyone on the roster contributed.

In Friday’s game against Centennial, they did everything possible to win the game for the first 31:40 of the game. In that other 20 seconds, Centennial was able to hit a game-winning 3-pointer and the Vikings were unable to hit a tying basket.

Coeur d’Alene closed out the tournament with a 55-40 win over Highland of Pocatello in a third-place game to finish the season with a win against the Rams, who’d only lost once this season entering the tournament.

The Vikings used a 60-foot buzzer beater by junior Caelyn Orlandi to start their momentum and finished the game at the free-throw line to close out the season with a win.

Later on Saturday, that same Centennial team that had beaten the Vikings was held to 24 points by Lewiston as the Bengals won a second straight 5A championship.

WHO KNOWS what might have happened if Centennial’s 3-pointer bounced off the rim and Coeur d’Alene advances to the championship?

Both Lewiston and Coeur d’Alene were expected to get to the championship game.

It was just unexpected that the other didn’t.

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