THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Wednesday, February 10, 2016

For those in attendance on Saturday, they saw the end of an era when it comes to basketball at Rolly Williams Court in Coeur d’Alene.

And that might be accurate.

But a good rivalry, that will always live on.

AS IT has been documented over the recent weeks, Saturday’s Scenic West Athletic Conference games between North Idaho College and the College of Southern Idaho were the final regular season games between the schools before NIC moves to the more regionally based Northwest Athletic Conference next year.

But that didn’t matter much, especially in the men’s game that night.

What fans that packed Christianson Gym were treated to was a pair of teams getting after each other, for a full 40 minutes, trying to get a key conference win.

NIC pulled away late in the men’s game, improving to 26-0, 11-0 in conference and moving closer to clinching the top seed to the Region 18 tournament in a few weeks in Twin Falls.

CSI was fighting to stay in the third spot in the conference with four games remaining.

Whether or not they play again in the Region 18 tournament remains to be seen, but you haven’t seen the last of these two on a basketball court.

It’s quite possible things don’t work out with both men’s and women’s teams playing on the same night in the same gym, but things will work themselves out in the coming months.

Not as long as Corey Symons is coaching at NIC, and Jared Phay is coaching at CSI.

Off the court, these guys are friends first, and as tough as it might be for them to go up against each other, they know that the game will bring out the best in their teams by playing each other.

Granted, you might not see the crowd that Saturday’s game did, with standing room only throughout the men’s game, but at some point, somewhere, they’ll see each other again.

Whether that’s in November, December or even a nonleague game in January, things are going too well to say goodbye now.

AT SOME point in between Coldplay and another Carolina turnover in Sunday’s Super Bowl, Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch retired from the NFL as only he could.

Lynch took to Twitter and sent out a photo of an image of green cleats hanging on a power line, along with a peace symbol.

That’s it.

That’s all that Lynch said, or had to be said.

But really, what else might have you expected from him?

Lynch is the guy that shows up to Super Bowl media day, just so he doesn’t get fined, and avoids any attention like crazy.

Without him, the Seahawks may not have won a Super Bowl, let alone get to back-to-back title games.

He brought a toughness to the team that was second to none, and an attitude that love or hate it, the team never had before he arrived.

And will also be tough to replace in the near future.

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 @JEPressSports.