THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: A lot to like as hoops season heats up

Maybe, just maybe this year will be different.

That road to a state tournament won’t be met with the hurdles that some teams had to avoid getting home, and things will run smoothly.

And again, getting to that final night at the Ford Idaho Center, maybe someone local will be hoisting that championship trophy when the time comes.

We’ll see soon.

AS COACHES have said, the road to state in the 5A Inland Empire League is a tough one, and this season is no different.

Lake City has started 10-0, with separate 3-0 runs through teams in the Boise area on different weeks.

“Our goal when we came down here was to go 6-0 in the two trips,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said. “There’s a lot of positives to take out of these two trips.”

Thursday’s 49-42 win over Bishop Kelly, while still a win, wasn’t quite how Lake City wanted to finish things.

“We just weren’t mentally ready for the game, which is something we haven’t done in our other nine games,” Winger said. “You can’t make excuses and you’ve got to be ready to go each and every night. And we weren’t today, and we can’t let that happen again.”

Lake City opened the week with wins at Meridian — the defending state 5A champions — and Eagle, a team that notched wins over Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls this week.

Coeur d’Alene improved to 7-2 with wins over Bishop Kelly and Meridian.

“We’re a lot more confident in each other and have a bit of an identity now to build on,” Coeur d’Alene coach Jon Adams said. “Playing on the road, it’s on the guys in the locker room. All the teams we played made runs on us. Meridian was going to knock down some shots and we learned what our limitations were and started to believe in each other. Eagle’s a good team, but we played really well (Coeur d’Alene lost 66-51), and if we can do that against Eagle, we can play like that against anybody. This was a huge confidence booster for us and a good chance to build our identity and really start to believe in each other.”

AFTER THE pandemic shut down the Fight for the Fish spirit game between Coeur d’Alene and Lake City in 2021, the boys and girls basketball teams will play the 2022 version on Friday night at Viking Court.

“I’ve never been to one,” said Adams, who graduated from Coeur d’Alene High in 2021 and took over as coach at his alma mater in 2020. “It’s going to be my first experience with it. I think the environment for that game is phenomenal and I’m excited to take that in and let the kids take it in.”

“We’re out to show what we’ve been working on this season,” Adams said. “It’s the next step and this is the moment and time where you put your best foot forward.”

Not to be outdone, the girls game between Lake City (13-1) and Coeur d’Alene (11-3) could be something well worth ringing ears.

Coeur d’Alene knocked off Timberlake, the top ranked team in the most recent state 5A media poll in Boise on Wednesday night. Lake City is coming off a runner-up finish in the Diamond Bracket of the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas.

And in case you’ve missed it, Post Falls (12-2) was runner up in its bracket at the Tarkanian Classic and has notched the tournament title at the Avista Winter Classic by beating IEL rival Lewiston.

Talk about best foot forward.

The teams here are pretty much on the gas with all those preseason goals well within their sights.

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 [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.