THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, February 4, 2016

It must have looked strange to the unaware in the crowd.

A team with the ball at the end of a tie game, trying not to score and win in regulation, because they were better off going to overtime and taking their chances there.

Or two teams, in a game that appeared to be well in hand, each calling timeouts in the closing minutes, because a basket or two might make a big difference — not in the final score, but the overall league outcome.

But that was this season in 5A Inland Empire League girls basketball, where three teams were so evenly matched that every point mattered — literally.

That was thanks to a point differential tiebreaker the IEL put into place in 2012.

It really came into play this season.

HERE’S THE scenario.

Lake City, Post Falls and Lewiston came down to the final game of the league season with the potential of a three-way tie for first in the 5A IEL. If Lewiston had won at Lake City last Saturday, all three teams would have finished 4-2.

But there was more to it than that.

The league bylaws say a three-team tiebreaker is broken by point differential, using games between the three teams, with a cap of nine points.

Lake City lost to Post Falls by 11 (9), beat Lewiston by 9 and beat Post Falls by 9.

Post Falls won by 7 at Lewiston, and lost by 8 at home to the Bengals.

So Lake City was at +9, Lewiston at -8 and Post Falls finished at -1 heading into the Lake City-Lewiston game.

That meant Lewiston had to win by 9 or more to win the tiebreaker by one point over Lake City. If The Bengals had won by 8, they would have jumped over Post Falls for the No. 2 seed behind Lake City.

So there was Lewiston last Saturday, with the ball in a closing seconds of a tie game, knowing that hitting a 2 or a 3 to win the game wouldn’t have mattered — the Bengals needed to win the game by at least 8 points to move up from the No. 3 seed.

Lewiston coach Dave Cornelia said he had talked about this at practice during the week — in that situation, getting the game to overtime was not a bad thing.

So the Lewiston player held the ball with clock ticking down. Only after hearing some yelling from the crowd — Cornelia said she wasn’t sure if it was coming from the crowd, or from the bench — did she make a move and put up what he called a “half-hearted” shot at the buzzer that didn’t come close.

As it turned out, three Lewiston players fouled out in overtime, Lake City outscored the Bengals 13-1 in the extra four minutes, and there was no tiebreaker needed — Lake City finished 5-1 in league, Post Falls 4-2, Lewiston 3-3.

“You don’t want to affect the integrity of the game, but … “ Cornelia said of his strategy.

“Yes, the end of that game was kind of interesting,” said Lake City coach Bryan Kelly, whose team led the whole way until Lewiston tied it in the final minute.

“Welcome to the IEL,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “I think with our league being small and as close as all the teams are in talent level that you will be seeing teams considering the tiebreakers a lot more.”

HE WOULD know. Post Falls and Lake City went through a similar thing a week earlier, in a game Lake City ended up winning 38-29.

“When we played Lake City the second time Bryan and I both called timeouts in the last 20 seconds of a nine-point game because we were both worried about the point differential,” Allert said. “We had beaten them by 11 — the cap is nine — so they needed to keep the score above nine. We actually played the last couple minutes with point differential in mind and so did they. I’m sure people in the stands were confused at why we are both calling timeout in a game that is seemingly over.”

And Cornelia mentioned that, in Lewiston’s win at Post Falls, the Bengals were trying to draw a foul in the end despite a seven-point lead, because All Points Matter.

As crazy as all that looked, everyone who was asked agreed the tiebreaker was better than rolling the dice on a coin flip to determine seeding.

“We have never seen it come into play much before this year, but it was on the coaches’ mind when they were looking at their game strategy,” said Post Falls athletic director Craig Christensen, one of the administrators involved in voting in the tiebreaker to the league bylaws. “We thought it would be best to have the seeding and IEL title decided on the play and not by a coin flip.”

SO WHAT’S the big deal, you might ask? It’s JUST seeding — they still have to play the games.

Lewiston moving up to the No. 2 seed would have meant the Bengals would have hosted Post Falls on Friday in the first round of the 5A Region 1 tournament (No. 1 Lake City hosts No. 4 Coeur d’Alene on Friday). Instead, Lewiston travels to Post Falls, and with a win would travel to Lake City for the regional title game if the T-Wolves beat Cd’A.

“(Lewiston) playing in Lewiston is normally a big advantage,” Allert said.

Normally.

This year, in fitting with the bizarre fashion in which the league season unfolded, Lewiston lost twice at home in league play — by seven to Post Falls in early December, and by nine to Lake City on Jan. 12.

But the Bengals are 2-1 in Kootenai County in league games, winning at Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, and taking Lake City to overtime.

“Don’t know if the tiebreaker is the best, but probably better than a coin flip, Cornelia said. “Just don’t think they considered a three-way or four-way tie when they came up with it.”

“It would be a bummer to tie for the league title and then end up the third seed due to a coin flip,” Allert said. “I’m sure it (the tiebreaker format) will be talked about again.”

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.