NAMPA - With its lead and most of its momentum gone and Post Falls trailing in the fourth quarter, Trojan senior point guard Marcus Colbert gathered the other starters together as they broke the huddle following a timeout.

"I asked them, 'How bad do we want it?'" Colbert said.

Apparently, pretty bad.

Especially Colbert, who scored 13 of his team's final 15 points, including the go-ahead basket with 4 seconds left, as Post Falls rallied past Centennial 56-55 in the first round of the state 5A boys basketball tournament Thursday night at the Idaho Center.

"I felt like we needed something to spark us," Colbert said of his fourth-quarter heroics. "Me getting to the hole and getting layups and scoring points, I think that was a way to get back in it."

His final trick came after Centennial's Aaron Maffey missed the front end of a one-and-one with 14.7 seconds left. Michael Hillman pulled down his 11th rebound of the game, and handed the ball to Colbert. He brought the ball up the middle of the court, drove down the left side of the lane, went up, hung in the air, and flipped the ball up underhanded with his right hand. The ball rolled around on the rim and dropped in.

"It might be silly but, we're down one with 10 seconds to go, chaos going, Marcus has got the ball, I felt pretty good about it," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said with a smile.

Post Falls (20-3), ranked second in 5A, will play Mountain View (17-7) of Meridian in the semifinals tonight at 7 PST. Mountain View beat Eagle 48-42.

Hillman finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds for Post Falls. He had 10 points and seven boards in the first half, which saw Colbert have to sit the final 5:30 of the first quarter after he picked up two quick fouls.

“My first thought was the Coeur d’Alene-Borah game (where Viking star Deon Watson picked up two quick fouls in the third quarter and had to sit down,” McLean said. “I was thinking ‘dang, this is not very good luck for District 1 tonight.’”

Colbert’s 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer sent Post Falls into the locker room with a 28-16 lead. The Trojans led by 12 in the third quarter, and appeared to have the game in hand until Centennial mounted a comeback.

“I didn’t think it was so much what Centennial was doing; I thought it was us turning the ball over and forcing shots,” McLean said. “When we got our defense set, Centennial had a hard time getting shots.”

Daryl Robertson, a junior point guard, finished with 23 points for Centennial and sparked the Patriots’ comeback. He scored six straight points to put Centennial ahead 46-41 with 4:38 remaining. It was about that time Colbert had that pep talk with his teammates.

Moments later, with Centennial appeared headed toward an easy basket, Taylor Valente of Post Falls stole the ball and fed ahead to Colbert for a 3-point play to pull the Trojans within two.

“I thought that was the game,” McLean said if Centennial had scored. “If they had pushed that lead, I don’t know if we could have came back. I thought that was a huge play in the game.”

Centennial went ahead 54-50 on a fast-break basket by Maffey with a minute left. But Colbert, the Montana State signee who scored his team’s last six points, wouldn’t let Post Falls go away.

Centennial helped by missing 3 of 4 free throws — including the front end of two one-and-ones — in the final 38.3 seconds.

Luke Thoreson, one of those who assumed ballhandling duties with Colbert on the bench in the first quarter, added 10 points.

McLean praised the defense of Valente and reserve Scott Benner, who helped hold Maffey and Landon Kissinger, Centennial’s top shooters, to a combined 11 points — 15 below their combined average. McLean said the goal before the game was to hold them to 10 or fewer points.

Post Falls survived despite missing 11 of 22 free throws. Centennial shot 61.5 percent (16 of 26) from the field in the second half, after shooting 21.4 percent (6 of 28) in the first half.

Colbert said it was a much better feeling than last year, when Post Falls lost in the closing seconds on a coast-to-coast dash by Borah point guard Isaiah Wright.

“A million times better than last year,” Colbert said. “A million times better.”

Centennial 9 7 22 17 — 55

Post Falls 9 19 11 17 — 56

CENTENNIAL — Maffey 9, Hill 4, Robertson 23, Kissinger 2, Imonigie 0, Leitzinger 9, Mabe 0, Atkinson 8. Totals 22-54 9-13 55.

POST FALLS — Anderson 5, Valente 1, Thoreson 10, Colbert 25, Benner 1, Hillman 14, Koski 0, Mueller 0. Totals 21-50 11-22 56.