THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Timberlake girls showed they could play at any level this season

If Timberlake High's girls basketball team was in the Inland Empire League, the Tigers would likely be playing at state this week in the 4A or 5A tournament.

The 3A Tigers, the defending state champions, went 8-2 vs. 4A and 5A teams this year — their only losses coming by seven and nine points to Coeur d'Alene, ranked No. 1 in 5A, which is one of the favorites in that tourney.

Timberlake beat 5A Post Falls twice, 4A Lakeland and Sandpoint twice each, and 5A Lake City and Lewiston once each.

Because of COVID, and not being able to play schools in Washington this season, the Tigers added more games against the bigger schools in North Idaho, which turned out to help them.

"This year, obviously, they’re very good," Lake City coach James Anderson said of Timberlake, which won at Lake City 59-48 in early December, led by a career-high 37 points from Brooke Jessen, who has signed with NCAA Division I Texas-Rio Grande Valley. "We were sure impressed with them when we played them at the start of the year. They’d do well (in the 5A IEL); they’ve got a good thing going. They continue to build and do a good job up there."

Timberlake has pretty much steamrolled its opponents in the Intermountain League in recent years, so the Tigers use their nonleague games to seek out bigger schools to play, to better prepare them when they get to state.

"I think it really helps, because typically the higher levels play more physical and faster," Timberlake coach Matt Miller said. "When you move up in any level it gets more physical."

Aside from the talent level being fairly similar between Timberlake and the bigger schools this year, Miller said one difference is that "pretty much every 5A team has had an advantage on us with depth."

Not that that's been evident in this year's matchups.

"They didn’t seem to have any issue (with the speed of the game)," Anderson said. "We struggled to press them; the point guard (Taryn Soumas) is such a good ballhandler, and so good at changing direction. They’re hard to press. Overall we were probably more athletic, but we couldn’t take advantage of it. They looked like they belonged."

WHETHER IT was the combined Inland Empire League, or separate 5A and 4A IELs, the carrot was the same for the three 4A teams in the seven-team league:

Win all four games against the other two 4A teams, and you get to play every game at home in the best-of-3 4A Region 1 championship series.

In girls basketball this season, that didn't happen, as Lakeland and Sandpoint split their two league meetings, with Lakeland earning the No. 1 seed through a point-differential tiebreaker in their two games.

In that scenario, Sandpoint was able to "steal" home-court advantage with its win at Lakeland in Game 1. Lakeland "stole" home court back with a victory at Sandpoint in Game 2. In the deciding game, Sandpoint won in Rathdrum to "steal" the region's lone berth to state.

Last year, Moscow's boys basketball team swept Lakeland and Sandpoint. Because of that, when Lakeland won at Moscow in Game 1 of the championship series, Moscow retained home-court advantage. The Bears then won Game 2 and Game 3 in Bear Den to advance to state and keep a talented Lakeland squad home.

"You don't have to remind me," Lakeland coach Dave Stockwell said.

This year, Lakeland can wrap up home-court advantage throughout the 4A Region 1 best-of-3 championship series with a victory tonight at Moscow.

That would mean each of the games would be in Rathdrum, even if the Hawks should slip up in Game 1 or Game 2.

Moscow has won the last four Region 1 titles. Lakeland's last trip to state was in 2016.

"They’ve had every number we’ve had the last five years; I’m glad we changed our number," Stockwell said. "I’m really excited about this team. We’ve been fighting not having this guy in the lineup, and this guy hurt ... these guys are about ready to turn that corner."

THE 5A Region 1 boys basketball tournament starts this Friday, with No. 4 Coeur d'Alene playing at No. 1 Lake City. The teams met just last Friday, also at Lake City, with the host Timberwolves weathering a strong Viking start to post a 75-59 victory to secure the No. 1 seed.

"They’re physical; we’ll have our hands full next Friday," Lake City coach Jim Winger said after last Friday's game. "They’re not an easy out, that’s for sure. They’ve got some athletes that play very, very hard; we’re going to have to match their intensity."

Coeur d'Alene's lone league win came over Post Falls, but the Vikings present what Winger said is the toughest matchup in the league in junior post Cameren Cope.

"I’m not sure you can fully stop him. He’s just a horse," Winger said.

The Vikings also own two victories over Lakeland, and show enough flashes to indicate they are not to be overlooked.

"We quickly brushed this one off, and we get another shot at 'em on Friday," Coeur d'Alene coach Jon Adams said after last Friday's game.

IN THE other 5A first-round matchup, No. 3 Post Falls travels to No. 2 Lewiston on Friday.

That's right — Post Falls is the third seed. The Trojans have won or shared the last five 5A IEL titles and last three Region 1 titles. But losses in league at Lake City and Coeur d'Alene, followed by last week's home loss to Lewiston — Post Falls' first league loss at home in seven years — have put the Trojans on the road to start the playoffs.

"Obviously we didn't make our lives any easier," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said after the Lewiston loss. "It's a life lesson; you can't take anything for granted, and now we’re dealing with adversity. Obviously we’d rather be at home, but we do a little traveling, so its not unusual to play on the road. We put ourselves in this position; now it's up to us to get out of it. No one in IEL is going to feel sorry for us."

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