THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: With holiday hoops feasts over, it's back to the grind

There was a time in high school sports where the break for the Christmas holidays was indeed that — a break.

But then, for whatever reason — maybe teams wanting to avoid rust from two weeks of no basketball games, and/or a chance to play several games during a time they would not miss any school — the birth of holiday tournaments came about.

Most of the local teams scratched that itch earlier in December.

Lake City’s boys and Post Falls’ boys played in the Curtis Winter Classic in University Place, Wash.

Coeur d’Alene’s boys played in the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas.

Coeur d’Alene’s girls also played in the Tark Classic, and Lake City’s girls played in the Nike Tournament of Champions in Mesa, Ariz.

And some kept it going over the holiday break, which is still going on in some school districts.

Lake City’s boys had hoped to spend last week at the prestigious Les Schwab Invitational in Hillsboro, Ore., an event which includes mostly Oregon teams, but also brings in some of the top teams from elsewhere in the country.

But alas, it didn’t happen, and Lake City, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls played host to Eagle, Meridian and Bishop Kelly in three days of matchups between the 5A Inland Empire League and the Southern Idaho Conference.

Lake City won its three games by a total of 91 points.

Coeur d’Alene hung 100 — 100! — points on Meridian, and won two of its three games.

Post Falls opened by notching its second win of the season, and had a chance at another win before finishing 1-2.

(On the flip side, Eagle went 2-1, Meridian 1-2, BK 0-3.)

BACK TO the Les Schwab.

Not only would the competition have been good for Lake City, but Oregon can be a suitable getaway from North Idaho this time of year, depending on the weather there.

Maybe a quick jaunt to the Oregon Coast before or after the game, with a stopoff in Otis for one of its famous pronto pups.

Maybe a trip through the drive-through at In-N-Out Burger in Keizer.

Perhaps a round of golf in Salem on New Year’s Eve.

Anyway …

As it turned out, none of the “national” teams won the 16-team event.

West Linn (Ore.), led by Oregon commit Jackson Shelstad and including Idaho football signee Mark Hamper, beat Bronny James and Sierra Canyon (Calif.) in the semifinals, and knocked off top-ranked Duncanville (Texas) in the championship game to become the first Oregon team to win the event since 2012.

Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) lost to Duncanville in the semis and lost to Sierra Canyon in the third-place game.

Central Catholic (Portland), which Lake City beat by 21 points in the semis at the Curtis tourney, went 1-3 at the Les Schwab, losing 87-48 to Bronny (game-high 19 points) and Sierra Canyon in the second round.

FOR WHAT it’s worth, Lake City’s boys are now up to 39th in MaxPreps’ national rankings.

Curtis, which was ranked 40th before losing at home to Lake City in the championship game of its tourney, played last week at the Classic at Damien, where Owyhee competed for the second straight year.

Curtis went 3-1 in its bracket, Owyhee 2-2 in its.

Now that all that “fun” is over, it’s back to the 5A IEL grind for Lake City (9-0), Coeur d’Alene (9-3) and Post Falls (2-10).

Post Falls’ boys and girls play host to Lewiston on Friday — then both Trojan teams travel to Lewiston just six days later.

And Coeur d’Alene and Lake City’s boys and girls will square off next Friday at Coeur d’Alene High in the Fight for the Fish spirit games — league matchups which are getting more intriguing by the day, with Lake City’s girls 12-2 and Coeur d’Alene’s girls 11-2, all four of those losses coming in the aforementioned out-of-state tourneys.

All leading up to those “other” tournaments in mid-February and early March which are kinda important.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.