THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Area girls basketball teams go for broke in Vegas

Bright lights, big-time competition and the Blue Man Group.

Those are just a few of the things that both the Post Falls and Lake City high school girls basketball teams hope to get starting next Friday in Las Vegas.

BOTH TEAMS will compete in the Tarkanian Classic, with Lake City playing in the ‘Diamond’ Championship bracket, considered the toughest of the three girls brackets, and Post Falls in the ‘Ruby’ bracket, the next-toughest bracket.

“We were scheduled to go down last year, but with COVID, the tournament was canceled,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “I wasn’t quite sure where we’d be at this point.”

Post Falls entered Friday’s game at Sandpoint 5-0 on the season.

Lake City, with one senior and five sophomores on its nine-player roster, is 9-0 going into Tuesday’s game at Sandpoint.

“Coming into the season from the inside, I had high expectations because I’ve seen what we can do and knew we could be very good,” fifth-year Lake City coach James Anderson said. “We’re very young, and only return a few players from the varsity group from last year. I thought we’d adapt and we’re close to where we thought we’d be. But you never know with the inexperience.”

Post Falls graduated three players from last year’s team, which advanced to the state 5A tournament.

“Looking at where we’re at right now, I wished we were in the upper bracket,” said Allert, in his 11th season. “It’s going to be fun to see other competition and going to be a good experience for everybody.”

Anderson said Lake City considered playing in a holiday tournament in San Diego this year, but with COVID-19 still lingering, decided going to Vegas was a safer bet.

“For us, we wanted to play at a high competition level,” Anderson said. “We’ve got such a good league, and playing in the Diamond division, it could expose us. But you can also get better by playing really good teams and seeing how hard other teams play.”

Anderson also likes it to build some chemistry within his team.

“Other tournaments, you’re gone three days and get a little bit of bonding time, but are also running from place to place,” Anderson said. “I really like the idea of having five nights in a hotel and doing a deep dive into our culture. I think that will be more critical than our game play.”

DURING ITS appearance at the Tark Classic in 2017, Post Falls went 3-1 in the Diamond division. The Trojans went on to capture the 2018 state 5A championship.

“We went down there not really knowing what to expect,” Allert said. “This year, we’ve got a better idea of what’s going on and getting around town and the logistics with that many kids. Hopefully things will go a little smoother this year. The last time, we played some really good teams with a really good team. Now I’m watching those kids we played against starting games for Kentucky, Utah and Tennessee.”

Post Falls opens the tournament against Mark Keppel High of Alhambra, Calif., next Friday at 9:30 p.m., while Lake City faces Desert Oasis of Las Vegas at 2 p.m. Both teams will play at Durango High, but on separate courts at the school.

If Lake City advances to the semifinals, the T-Wolves would play at Orleans Arena, where the Zags play in the West Coast Conference tournament.

Anderson added that he’s fine with his team kind of being an unknown to this point.

“From my perspective, I like the scenario we’re in,” Anderson said. “We need to focus on the process, and it’s easy to get distracted when you’re having a good season. It kind of helps us that the attention is on the (Lake City) boys team and we can focus on building things. I’m OK with not being front and center. We still have a lot of work to do.”

TEAMS WILL play Friday and Saturday, have a day off on Sunday, then conclude the tournament Dec. 20 and 21.

Don’t worry, both teams will remain busy, thanks to some help from their assistant coaches.

“Nothing was really planned for us, but Kennedy (LaFountaine; a Post Falls assistant and former Trojan player) has taken it upon herself to be a travel agent for us. We’ll find a way to make it a full experience.”

“My assistant Tom Gasper is from Vegas and has a lot of connections at some of the schools down there,” Anderson said. “We’ve got tickets to a comedy show, Blue Man Group and we're invited to a game at UNLV. We’ll do a little sight seeing and have some access to a school for practices. We’ve got a lot of stuff on the calendar and it should be fun.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.