COEUR d'ALENE - Against your rival, to get to where you want to go, you must defend your home court.

With the cross-town Lake City Timberwolves coming to Elmer Jordan Court on Friday night for the 14th annual Fight for the Fish spirit basketball games, that's exactly what the Coeur d'Alene Vikings did - got defensive.

Senior Devon Loy scored a game-high 18 points to lead the fifth-ranked Vikings past the Timberwolves 55-31 in the boys game.

"It's been a difficult week for us," said Coeur d'Alene coach Kent Leiss, whose Vikings beat Lewiston in their 5A Inland Empire League opener Tuesday, despite two starters benched for the start of the game, and a third that didn't play at all. "We've had a rough week with some suspensions and waiting on Chad (Chalich) to get back and the kids had to deal with me after I felt we didn't play our best at the Christmas tournament at NIC."

Chalich was dressed to play, but is still a week away from returning from his broken foot, Leiss added. The team also lost senior Gage Neirinckx for the season after moving out of the district.

Earlier, Kyeli Parker scored 14 points as the top-ranked Viking girls (13-2, 3-1 5A IEL) opened a 23-8 halftime lead on the way to a 51-31 win over the Timberwolves (9-6, 0-2).

Following the boys game, the Lake City student body was awarded the Fish by a group of judges from the surrounding area. The games attracted an overflow crowd of 1,800. It was the ninth time in 14 games Lake City has won the fish.

"I'm happy for the school," Lake City athletic director and boys basketball coach Jim Winger said. "You can't imagine how much work both of these schools put in to make this happen. It's an awesome thing."

Boys: Coeur d'Alene jumped out to a 9-1 advantage early in the first quarter and held the Timberwolves to 17 points in the first half.

"Our defense dominated the game tonight," Leiss said. "Our only mistake was fouling too much in the first half."

"It was really a combo of things," said Winger of the offense. "Coeur d'Alene was just awesome defensively and we were totally out to lunch. I'm not sure where we were, but I can't say enough about what they did defensively."

Deon Watson scored 13 points for Coeur d'Alene (7-3, 2-0 5A IEL), which hosts Sandpoint on Tuesday.

"We were able to shoot a high percentage tonight because we shared the ball," Leiss said. "Even without Chad, we know we're a good team. We've played half our regular season and we're starting to play the right way."

Loy finished with three 3-pointers, all coming in the second half for Coeur d'Alene.

"I felt the extra pass was helping tonight," Loy said. "This was a pretty important win. We really needed it to boost our confidence moving forward. Now we know we can bring it every night."

After hitting a pair of free throws late in the Vikings' win over the Timberwolves in the third-place game of the Coeur d'Alene Inn-vitational, Loy was eager to see Lake City again this week in the Fish game.

"With kids coming dressed up to school all week and the pep assemblies, I got pumped up," Loy said. "Once that opening tip goes up, there's really nothing like it."

Kyle Guice scored 10 points for Lake City (6-6, 0-1), which hosts Post Falls on Tuesday.

Lake City 6 11 12 2 - 31

Coeur d'Alene 16 16 15 8 - 55

LAKE CITY - Pratt 6, Bevacqua 5, Ness 1, Moreen 5, Guice 10, Traverse 1, Winger 3, Ross 0, Lake 0, Murphy 0, Redal 0.

COEUR d'ALENE - Tackett 7, Roletto 6, Daniels 0, Carpenter 0, Loy 18, Moore 2, Higbie 7, Watson 13, Blakely 2, Kluss 0.

Girls: Coeur d'Alene girls coach Dale Poffenroth praised the defense of Caelyn Orlandi, who held Lake City point guard Jasmyn Smith scoreless.

"She is a great shooter," Poffenroth said of Smith. "Both her and (Jansen) Butler are, so we had to be tough on them. If Caelyn can play like that, we usually win."

Erin Legel and Madison Sumner had eight points apiece, with Orlandi adding seven for the Vikings.

"We had some balanced scoring tonight," Poffenroth said.

In the semifinals of last week's Coeur d'Alene Inn-vitational, Coeur d'Alene held Lake City to seven points in the second half of a 51-35 win.

"Our goal was to come out and try to limit their shots," Poffenroth said. "If you play tough defense, you're going to have a good chance."

Amber Hawkes scored a team-high 12 points for Lake City, which hosts Post Falls on Tuesday. Hawkes had all eight of the Timberwolves' first-half points, including a basket with 5:50 left in the second quarter for Lake City's first points.

"In the locker room, our heads were up," Lake City coach Royce Johnston said. "We've been able to put together a couple of halves against them. It was obvious they were going to take Smith away tonight, but I was proud of the way (Hailey) Jackson, Hawkes and (Kassie) Torres stepped up tonight."

Jackson added 11 points for Lake City.

Coeur d'Alene hosts Sandpoint on Tuesday.

Lake City 0 8 13 10 - 31

Coeur d'Alene 8 15 12 16 - 51

LAKE CITY - Jackson 11, Butler 7, Smith 0, Wheelock 0, Gay 0, Torres 1, Hawkes 12, Heidenreich 0.

COEUR d'ALENE - S. Butler 2, Sumner 8, Chalich 0, Orlandi 7, K. Parker 14, Tackett 0, Legel 8, Higbie 0, Brainard 6, S. Williams 6.