The Front Row with MARK NELKE Jan. 12, 2012

Since Gonzaga began its NCAA tournament run in the 1998-99 season, it has similarly dominated the West Coast Conference, winning the conference title outright 10 times, sharing it twice, and finishing second once.

The Zags have played in the WCC tournament title game all 13 years, winning 10 times.

In those first few seasons, Pepperdine and Santa Clara were the Zags' main rivals, but no more - Gonzaga has beaten Pepperdine 21 straight times, and the Zags have beaten Santa Clara 23 of the past 25 times.

In recent years, Saint Mary's has emerged as the Zags' main challenger in the WCC.

And that rivalry is renewed tonight, when 21st-ranked and second-place Gonzaga (13-2, 3-0 WCC) plays at first-place Saint Mary's (15-2, 4-0) in an 8 p.m. tilt on ESPN2.

Since the start of the 2005-06 season, Saint Mary's has beaten Gonzaga five times in their last 17 meetings. That doesn't sound that impressive in itself, but it's the best any team in the league has done against Gonzaga in that span.

The Zags are 24-3 vs. San Francisco since the start of the 1998-99 season. Gonzaga has beaten Portland 17 straight times, and 31 of the last 32. The Zags have won 28 of the last 30 from San Diego, and 32 of 35 from Loyola Marymount since the middle of the 1995-96 season.

Saint Mary's is led by two players who seemingly have been in the league forever - junior guard Matthew Dellavedova and senior forward Rob Jones, who played his first two seasons at fellow WCC school San Diego, back in 2007-08 and 2008-09.

And, other than WCC newcomer BYU, Saint Mary's figures to be the biggest threat to the Zags again this year.

So much for that.

So much for Friday's 5A Inland Empire League boys basketball matchup pitting Post Falls at Coeur d’Alene being a battle of unbeatens in the league.

Coeur d’Alene (8-3), ranked No. 4 in this week’s media poll, leads the league at 2-0 — both wins coming at home. Post Falls (11-1), ranked No. 1, is 1-1 in league after suffering its first loss on Tuesday night, losing 39-36 at Lake City.

You had to figure Lake City was going to have something to say about the league race at some point, but after losing by 24 points at Coeur d’Alene last Friday, credit the Timberwolves (7-6, 1-1 5A IEL) with a nice bounceback.

“We’re going into a hornet’s nest on Friday and need to be ready to go,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean told Press sports writer Jason Elliott after Tuesday’s loss at Lake City. “In this league, you need to have amnesia and forget about what happened in the last game and move onto the next one.”

McLean, in his fifth season at Post Falls, is a former assistant at Coeur d’Alene under Kent Leiss, who is in his ninth season with the Vikings.

Since McLean left Coeur d’Alene to take over at his alma mater, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene have split their 10 meetings over the past four years — though Post Falls has won five of the last seven. The last two years during the regular season, each team won on the other’s home floor.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at [email protected].