THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, February 11, 2016

Remember the funky tiebreaker that nearly came into play for 5A Inland Empire League girls basketball teams in determining seeding for the Region 1 tournament?

The same scenario is looming in the 5A IEL boys hoops race, with one league game remaining.

The only difference is, the boys coaches don’t seemed as concerned about the tiebreaker as the girls coaches did.

If league-leading Post Falls (14-6, 4-1 5A IEL) wins at Lewiston (11-8, 3-2) on Friday, no tiebreaker is needed — Post Falls is the No. 1 seed to regionals, Coeur d’Alene (15-4, 4-2) is No. 2, Lewiston No. 3 and Lake City (6-13, 0-6) No. 4.

But if Lewiston wins on Friday, its margin of victory would help break the three-way tie.

“I was aware of the tiebreaker format all season,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “The tiebreaker format did not affect the way I coached in games. I coach each game to win and prepare the team before the game only worrying about winning the game, not the point differential. To win one IEL game in any given season is so difficult, I believe that worrying about the other league games, especially future ones do not help you in your preparation or your team win.”

DURING GIRLS 5A IEL play, there were coaches on both teams calling timeouts in the closing seconds of a nine-point game — not because the outcome was in doubt, but because each point could matter in a tiebreaker.

Also, with the score tied in the closing seconds, one coach eschewed a chance to try to win the game in regulation — knowing the game had to go to overtime, because his team had to win by 8 or more points to improve his seeding for regionals.

A week ago, it didn’t look like a tiebreaker would come into play in the 5A IEL boys race. But Coeur d’Alene won twice at home in five days, beating Lewiston and then beating first-place Post Falls, which could have wrapped up the No. 1 seed with a win.

We were wondering how a potential tiebreaker was shaping up, so we crunched the numbers.

To review from last week, in a three-way tiebreaker, each team is assigned a point total based on the point differential of its games against the other two teams in the tiebreaker. There is a cap of nine points, so if a team wins by more than that, they just get nine — and the other team just gets minus-9.

Anyway, Coeur d’Alene, which lost at Post Falls by one and lost at Lewiston by 24, then beat Lewiston by four and Post Falls by eight, currently leads with a score of +2 (unlike golf, in this tiebreaker, a plus score is good).

Post Falls, which also beat Lewiston by eight points in the first meeting at home, is at +1, one point behind Coeur d’Alene.

Lewiston is at -3.

So if Lewiston wins by six or more on Friday, the Bengals end up the No. 1 seed, Coeur d’Alene would be No. 2, Post Falls No. 3. If Lewiston wins by five, the Bengals end up tied with Coeur d’Alene at +2. But in that scenario, Coeur d’Alene has already won a coin flip with Lewiston for the No. 1 seed. So Lewiston would be No. 2, Post Falls No. 3.

If Lewiston wins by three or four, the Bengals would be the No. 2 seed behind Coeur d’Alene. Win by one, and Lewiston would be the No. 3 seed, behind Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls. And if Lewiston wins by two, the Bengals and Post Falls each finish at -1, and Lewiston has already won the coin flip for the No. 2 seed behind Coeur d’Alene. Post Falls would be No. 3.

Got it? Good.

“Pretty complicated this year,” Post Falls athletic director Craig Christensen said. “At least we are all on the same page. After all that I hope we will not have to go to the coin flip.”

Now, whether this tiebreaker strategy actually comes into play in a close game Friday in Lewiston is anyone’s guess. Doubtful that Bengal coaches will have a chart on the sidelines, like football coaches do that tell them when it’s best to go for two. Even Lewiston’s girls coach, Dave Cornelia, admitted later that perhaps he should have just tried to win the game in regulation, even if winning didn’t help his seeding.

OBVIOUSLY, AS McLean said, the Trojans would love to play at home during the regional tournament. But he’s not going to lose any sleep worrying about the what-ifs.

“We have had some success over the last nine years with this philosophy, and will continue with this way of thinking as long as I am the head coach,” McLean said. “Going into this final week of the regular season, we still control our own destiny; win, we are league champions and if we lose we are not. That is all you can ever ask for as a true competitor. Either way we will not make excuses, nor complain about our situation.”

Well, considering Post Falls has qualified for state seven times in McLean’s first eight seasons, with two state titles and one second-place finish, it’s hard to argue with that philosophy.

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.