THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The postseason, where the good teams have to be better.

And those chasing them have to be just a little bit better than that.

With the first of three state tournaments approaching in a little under two weeks, what better time than now to play your best.

THE RACE in the 5A Region 1 girls basketball tournament will be fun to watch, as it normally is.

In the first round on Friday, Lewiston (19-1), the top seed, hosts fourth seed Coeur d'Alene (10-11), and third seed Lake City (14-7) travels at Post Falls (16-5). Both games start at 7 p.m.

On Saturday, Lake City came up short of an upset in a 43-32 loss to Lewiston at Booth Hall in the regular season finale for both schools. Lake City had the deficit down to four points in the fourth quarter before Lewiston hit a few shots down the stretch.

"It showed our girls we can play with anyone in the league," Lake City coach Bryan Kelly said. "We just needed to knock some shots down. Defensively and rebounding, it was the best we've done all year."

And Lake City did all that without leading scorer Whitney Meier, who was out sick all week and didn't practice with the team.

Not even the regional runner-up is guaranteed a spot in the state tournament. They'll have to earn that spot next Saturday in a play-in game.

The state title has came back to a team in the 5A Inland Empire League each of the past eight seasons. To make it a ninth, somebody is going to have to emerge from this tournament playing at their best.

NOW ABOUT that final call in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday in Glendale, Ariz.

You're absolutely right, Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin should really be ashamed of himself for starting that brawl at the end of the game.

But ... of course ... that's not what almost every Seahawks fan is upset about right now.

How on Earth can Pete Carroll call a slant pass with 26 seconds left on the 1-yard line with Marshawn Lynch waiting in the backfield.

Simple - it had worked most of the time he'd called it during the regular season. Lynch, for as good as he was in the Super Bowl, was 1 for 5 in the similar situation during the regular season.

Don't get me wrong, in a similar situation, I'd roll the dice with Marshawn all day long because he'd find a way to get that yard.

But, he didn't get the chance.

New England cornerback Malcolm Butler made the play of his career and stepped in front of a pass intended for Ricardo Lockette to seal the Patriots fourth Super Bowl title with Tom Brady at quarterback.

Some fans call this the biggest mistake in Super Bowl history, and they've got a point.

But as a life-long Seahawks fan, it doesn't even come close.

I've been through those 2-14 seasons, missing out on the playoffs because a referee mistook the player's helmet for the football on a game-winning touchdown, and that last Super Bowl fiasco that resulted in a loss.

Sunday's game was a great game, one that could have gone either way.

New England just made one more play that Seattle did on Sunday.

And that's just fine with me.

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 email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.