THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: No Pig, but still plenty of spirit in Prairie rivalry

The last time Lakeland High beat Post Falls in boys basketball, the current Lakeland coach was then the coach at Post Falls.

Dave Stockwell was in his first season of a seven-year run at Post Falls. He's now in his 10th season at Lakeland.

In January 2001, in the Prairie Pig spirit game at Post Falls High (now Post Falls Middle School), Lakeland beat Post Falls 69-62, avenging an eight-point loss to the Trojans at home just nine days earlier.

Lakeland's coach was Trent Derrick, now the school's principal.

Lakeland hasn't beaten Post Falls since.

On Tuesday night, the Trojans beat the Hawks for the 26th straight time, 57-43, in an Inland Empire League game at Post Falls High.

IT WAS the first meeting in three years between the two teams, who are only 7 miles apart. Since Post Falls is a 5A school and Lakeland is in 4A, the schools haven't had to play each other in league for a decade, since they were in separate leagues.

And the Prairie Pig games ended after the 2015-16 season.

This year, athletic directors from the four 5A schools and the three 4A schools voted to combine into one big league for the regular season, playing each other twice, then going their separate ways in the postseason.

Under coach Mike McLean, the Post Falls boys have seldom played the area 4A schools, instead seeking games against bigger schools elsewhere in the state, or in Washington, or even at tournaments in Nevada.

"Even if the rule hadn’t changed, we would have ended up playing these guys this year because of COVID," McLean said.

Because of COVID, Post Falls missed out on a chance to return to the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas, as well as games against teams in the Greater Spokane League and elsewhere in Washington.

"For me being against this whole new league, it has nothing to do with those schools," McLean said of Lakeland, Sandpoint and Moscow. "We can play like-sized schools from Spokane, from the Tri-Cities, and it’s really important at all three levels that we get good games for our freshmen and JV. I have nothing personally against not playing those guys; I’m looking at it as ... what’s best for our program, long term.

And playing schools our own size, or similar size, is better for us."

While the varsity game was competitive Tuesday night, McLean noted that the JV and freshmen games went to a running clock in the fourth quarter.

This year, the 5A teams' games vs. Lakeland and Moscow in particular have been quite competitive. But McLean said it might be "short-sighted" to combine the leagues in other years, when there might be a bigger gap between the 5A and 4A teams.

"It’s nothing against the Lakeland kids, or the Sandpoint kids, or the Moscow kids," McLean said.

Ironically, McLean began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant on Stockwell's staff at Post Falls in the early 2000s, before he spent five seasons as junior varsity coach at Coeur d'Alene High, then took over the Post Falls program in 2007 — succeeding Stockwell as head coach.

After Tuesday night's game, McLean had plenty of praise for Lakeland.

"We played Middleton, which is a favorite in 4As, and Lakeland is every bit as good as them, if not more talented," McLean said. "I expect Lakeland to keep on rolling. I know exactly what Lakeland is; they are very good. Jalen (Skalskiy) is a special talent, and (Noah) Haaland … I love the way the two Munyer brothers play. Ammon, the ruggedness he brings inside, I really appreciate what he does. They got (Carson) Seay out there shooting. They’ve got all the pieces to be very special."

With good team defense, Post Falls was able to keep the high-flying Skalskiy and Haaland relatively in check. The Hawks "only" dunked twice vs. Post Falls — once by Skalskiy, once by Ammon Munyer. Last month in a win at Lapwai, Skalskiy and Haaland put on a dunkfest.

"We wanted to keep them out of transition, because when they get out and rolling, those two are scary, because they’re big and can run," McLean said. "We were worried about them taking our rim home with them."

The teams are scheduled to meet again Feb. 16 in Rathdrum, in the IEL and regular season finale for both teams.

Lakeland will have another chance to break through then, on its home court.

"It’ll be a different story," Stockwell said. "Everybody’s got to remember … these guys are 5A. We’re just a 4A. They’re twice as big as we are. Mike didn’t even want to play us. So … we’ll see how it goes from here on out."

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.