COEUR d'ALENE - Coeur d'Alene High girls basketball coach Dale Poffenroth's message to his top-ranked Vikings squad at halftime was simple on Tuesday night.

"If we play really well in the first four minutes (of the second half), we can get the game under control. But if we play flat, it's going to be a battle right to the end of the game."

In a battle of two of the top three teams in the latest state 5A media poll, it was the third-ranked Lewiston Bengals that did enough in the fourth quarter to edge the Vikings.

Paige Wells scored all nine of her points in the second half and Emilee Schalder put the Bengals up for good with 40 seconds remaining in a 49-46 win in a 5A Inland Empire League game at Elmer Jordan Court.

"That Lewiston team played very, very well," Poffenroth said. "Their kids shot the ball well and to shoot the ball as well as they did in our gym speaks very highly to what they're doing as a team."

"That was a good game," Lewiston coach Pat Teichmer said. "Entertaining. Both teams forced the other into mistakes they don't normally make. That's the best team we've played by a mile and we were fortunate to compete and play with them and come out of here with a W."

Sydney Williams, who scored a game-high 16 points, had a late 3-point attempt pop off the rim with one second remaining for Coeur d'Alene (7-1, 0-1 5A IEL), which travels to Burlington-Edison High in Burlington, Wash., on Thursday.

"It puts a little more pressure on us the next time we play them down there (Jan. 24)," Poffenroth said. "Because I don't think they'll trip up against Post Falls or Lake City. It makes that trip tomorrow not as enjoyable a ride for us and those games in the next few weeks more important to get back on track."

Lynzee Wilson scored 11 points in the game, eight coming in the first quarter for Lewiston (9-0, 2-0 5A IEL).

"Paige is a scorer and when she's feeling it, the ball is going to go in," Teichmer said. "Lynzee got us off to a good start, but it was a complete team effort tonight. We're pretty deep and I saw some things we need to improve on, but we like the pieces we have."

"Their big kids did a nice job and created a matchup problem for us that I didn't anticipate," Poffenroth said.

Coeur d'Alene finished the game 8 for 20 from the free-throw line.

"You're not going to win many games like that," Poffenroth said. "Especially in our own gym. He (Lewiston coach Pat Teichmer) played seven or eight kids in the first half and did a good job of shuffling them back and forth, but I don't have that many kids. His kids shot the ball really, really well and on a road trip, to shoot that highly, speaks well of them. But we can't be 8 for 20 from the foul line."

Coeur d'Alene led 26-21 at halftime, but found itself down 34-32 after the third quarter on a buzzer beating layup by Rayla Lohman.

"We moved the ball well in the first half and had a lot of different players touch the ball and got some stuff on the fast break," Poffenroth said. "That just didn't happen in the second half. It's like I told them at halftime, if we play really well, we can get the game under control. But if we play flat, it's going to be a battle right to the end. We came out flat in the second half and they caught up and made that basket at the end of the third quarter and the momentum switched. We got a little complacent in what we wanted to do on offense, and it hurt us."

Brittany Tackett had eight points, five rebounds and five steals for Coeur d'Alene.

Lewiston faces Walla Walla in a holiday tournament at Lewis-Clark State College next Friday.

"This court is tough to play on, no matter what level of team you have," Teichmer said. "It's nice to win in mid-December, but we'd like to play our best in six weeks. This is good for us to get a win against the premier team in the state for the past decade. It's good for us."

Lewiston 15 6 13 15 - 49

Coeur d'Alene 19 7 6 14 - 46

LEWISTON - H. Weeks 0, B. Weeks 6, Wilson 11, Lohman 2, Teichmer 0, Schlader 9, Moscrip 0, Wells 9, White 6, Hastings 6.

COEUR d'ALENE - Parker 10, Sumner 4, Chalich 8, Tackett 8, Matheson 0, Hermesch 0, Williams 16.