POST FALLS - The road to the 5A Region I tournament just got a little more unclear for Post Falls and Lake City High.

Senior Luke Thoreson scored a team-high 14 points to lead the third-ranked Trojans past the Timberwolves 55-41 in an Inland Empire League game at The Arena on Tuesday.

"After those losses on the road (at Lake City and Coeur d'Alene), we treated it like a wakeup call," Thoreson said. "It's hard to win any game in the IEL, especially on the road. But it felt good to get some revenge tonight."

Post Falls (15-2, 3-2 5A IEL) and Lake City (9-7, 3-2) are tied for second place with one game remaining in league play. Post Falls will host first-place Coeur d'Alene (12-4, 3-1) next Wednesday and Lake City travels to Lewiston next Tuesday. Wins by both teams will leave the three schools in a three-way tie for first place, with tiebreakers against teams in the 4A IEL or a coin flip to determine seeding to regionals starting Feb. 17.

Lake City beat Post Falls 39-36 on Jan. 10 at Lake City High.

“When coach (Brian) Kelly and I watched Lake City beat Coeur d’Alene last Friday, we knew the waters were going to get a little muddy,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “When we lost those games (at Lake City and at Coeur d’Alene), we lost that comfort of being able to control our destiny. Now at least we know what we’ve got to do.”

Post Falls opened the game on an 11-4 run, keyed by a pair of 3-pointers by Marcus Colbert. The Trojans maintained the advantage through the first half, taking a 30-23 lead at halftime.

Lake City cut the deficit to 37-35 on a layup from Luke Ness and had the chance to tie on alley-oop to Riley Moreen, but the ball got wedged between the rim and backboard, giving the ball back to Post Falls on the alternating possession arrow.

Post Falls scored the final eight points of the third and outscored the Timberwolves 10-4 in the final quarter for the win.

“I was very happy with our team tonight,” McLean said. “This was the first game we’ve played in a while when we’ve looked like a senior-led team. Lake City threw everything at us as far as zones went and we were able to find a way to get it done.”

Lake City’s Kyle Guice had 14 points and five blocks, three coming in the second half.

“He’s good,” said McLean of the sophomore. “He’s really good.”

Ness finished with 12 points for Lake City, which travels to Moscow on Friday.

“I was really pleased with how we played,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said. “We just missed some easy ones down the stretch tonight.”

Post Falls outrebounded Lake City 29-16, holding the Timberwolves to one offensive rebound.

“We had it down to two points, but we just didn’t finish,” Winger said. “We were giving them second and third looks at the basket. I thought we executed our gameplan very well. I was pleased with our effort. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing. They just outrebounded us. We had a good halfcourt series on defense, but we didn’t finish with our rebounding.”

Lake City 13 10 14 4 — 41

Post Falls 21 9 15 10 — 55

LAKE CITY — Traverse 0, Pratt 3, Bevacqua 4, Ross 3, Ness 12, Moreen 2, Guice 14, Winger 3.

POST FALLS — Anderson 8, Valente 8, Thoreson 14, Colbert 13, Benner 0, Hillman 10, Koski 2.