THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, February 5, 2015

If Tuesday night's results are any indication, the Post Falls Trojans are separating themselves from the rest of the 5A Inland Empire League in boys basketball.

Post Falls (17-1, 4-0 5A IEL), ranked No. 2 in 5A in this week's Idaho prep boys basketball media poll, has won eight straight games, most recently beating Lewiston (72-40), Moscow (86-33) and, Tuesday night, romping at Lake City (63-32).

"Our last three games, we've played pretty well," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "Down at Lewiston, we played very similar to this against Lewiston, and was able to use our speed and our pressure. Against Moscow, we did the same thing."

There's a reason.

"In our program over the years, we've developed a little plan, the way we practice, the way we prepare for games," McLean said. "Come this time of year, we refine our focus a little bit in practice, we start preparing for teams individually more and more, where in the beginning of the year we worry about us, and us only. ... we do that because I feel the kids stay more fresh. If you start doing that from Day One, when it gets to the time it really matters, kids may not read scouting reports, or pay as much attention to film."

With two league games still to play, Post Falls has already clinched the No. 1 seed and home-court advantage for the 5A Region 1 tournament, which begins Feb. 20. Coeur d'Alene (12-6, 2-3) Lake City (8-9, 2-3) are tied for second, followed by Lewiston (8-10, 1-3).

Post Falls plays host to Coeur d'Alene on Saturday and Lewiston next Friday. Lake City visits Lewiston on Saturday.

A COUPLE of reactions to Coeur d'Alene's 47-42 loss on Tuesday night at Lewiston, which was winless in league play coming into the game:

Lewiston -- tough place to play. And Lewiston - young team that's going to be real good in years to come.

Those that have been around a while already knew Lewiston is a tough place to play - regardless of the talent level. As for being an up-and-coming team ...

"We just proved that we can play with anybody in our league," first-year Lewiston coach Jayson Ulrich told the Lewiston Tribune.

TWO THINGS that stood out from Post Falls' win the other night - the Trojans' swarming pressure, in their half-court and full-court press, and the way they made the extra pass to set up wide-open shots.

If it looked like they were coming at Lake City in waves, they were - at least nine of the 11 players on the roster played considerable minutes.

"And if you notice, we keep subbing, we just keep the pressure on," McLean said. "We might change faces and numbers, but what we do is what we do."

And ...

"The more you share the ball, the more fun it is," McLean said.

MEANWHILE, Lake City, which has had ballhandling issues in some other games but was able to play through it, struggled against Post Falls' press.

"And I did a bad job with how we attacked it," Lake City coach Jim Winger said. "The second half we did a lot better job. We were too clogged up and helped them with their run-and-jump, and by the time we fixed that it was too late. We put way too much pressure on our guards."

The Timberwolves, despite being pretty much a new group from last year's third-place team at state, has played well most of the year, splitting a pair of overtime games with Coeur d'Alene, and leading at Post Falls at halftime recently before losing.

But Lake City has lost its last two games by more than 30 points each.

"It's real important that we have to keep our heads up, keep going," Winger said. "This season, it changes, the ebb and flow of it is just tough. The key to getting to the state tournament is keeping your heads up when things are bad and right now, we're not doing a lot right, and that's my job to fix it. ... we're still right in the thick of it for second, and we don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves. I like this group a lot, and there's no way we're not going to stop fighting."

The 5A Region 1 champ qualifies for state. The runner-up can make it to state through a play-in game vs. the fifth-place finisher from the District 3 tournament.

MILESTONES: Dale Poffenroth reached the 400- and 500-win plateaus earlier in his tenure as Coeur d'Alene High girls basketball coach.

Last Tuesday, Poffenroth recorded win No. 600 when the Vikings triumphed 33-26 at Sandpoint. "Poff" is now 600-152 in his 28th season coaching high school girls basketball. He is 226-49 in his 11th season at Coeur d'Alene, after 17 seasons at Central Valley in Spokane.

He won his fourth state title as Vikings coach last February. But that team was hit hard by graduation, and essentially started over this year, and takes a respectable 10-11 record in to Friday's 5A Region 1 tournament opener at Lewiston, ranked second in the state by the media.

Asked earlier this year why he continues to coach, he replied, "It beats sitting home when it's 15 degrees outside, wondering what's next on TV."

As they say, coaches coach.

Stacey Sonder recently hit the 100-win mark at Lakeside. He's now 100-83 in his ninth season overall at Lakeside, and first season in his second stint as the Knights' boys coach. He coached the Lakeside girls the last two seasons, after coaching the Knight boys for six years.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.