COEUR d’ALENE — The last seven minutes of the game may have seemed like seven hours, but in the end, the Lake City Timberwolves were finally able to exhale.

Lake City played a terrific third quarter, and built a 14-point lead early in the fourth, and needed every bit of that margin to hold off the host Coeur d’Alene Vikings 52-50 in the championship game of the 5A Region 1 boys basketball tournament Wednesday night at Elmer Jordan Court.

“The third quarter was pivotal, to get the lead,” said Lake City coach Jim Winger, whose T-Wolves outscored the Vikings 19-7 in the third quarter to build a 44-32 lead. “Not too many teams have won on the road in a district championship, so we’ll take that baby and run. Certainly we have some things at the end of the game that we need to make some adjustments, but other than that, very pleased.”

Kyle Guice scored 13 points, Justin Pratt 10 for second-seeded Lake City (17-5), which won its second straight regional title, and advances to state beginning next Thursday at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. Lake City will play in the tourney opener at 12:15 p.m. PST, taking on the District 5-6 runner-up. Highland of Pocatello and Skyline of Idaho Falls play tonight for the district championship, with Skyline needing to win twice for the title.

Top-seeded Coeur d’Alene (17-4) will play host to third-seeded Post Falls (14-8) on Saturday at 3 p.m. for Region 1’s second berth to state.

Wednesday’s game was a game of runs. Lake City had a 10-0 run in the first quarter, and Coeur d’Alene had its own 10-0 run in the second, and the Vikings led 23-22 at halftime.

Tony Naccarato’s basket hiked Coeur d’Alene’s lead to 25-22 early in the third, but Lake City went on a 9-0 run, capped by Jake Vetsch’s 3-pointer. The T-Wolves then closed the quarter on a 10-2 run, capped by Guice’s 3 from the right wing at the third-quarter buzzer.

“Our coach gave us a great game plan; he’s been on us since we were sophomores, and we were ready for this,” said Pratt, a senior point guard. “Our third quarters have been really good the last five games.”

Quinn Mitchell’s hook shot 19 seconds into the fourth quarter made it 46-32 Lake City.

At that point Coeur d’Alene, sluggish on offense most of the night, picked up the pressure and inched its way back into the game. The press caused Lake City problems in the backcourt, and the Viks pounded the T-Wolves on the board.

Lake City scored just one field goal the rest of the game — a driving layup by Chuckie Adams with 3:17 left that gave the T-Wolves a 48-34 lead.

Naccarato started the comeback with a 3-point play, and the Vikings pulled within 51-48 on two free throws by Devin Kluss with 20.1 seconds left. Vetsch hit one of two free throws with 16.6 seconds left for a four-point lead.

Coeur d’Alene rushed the ball down the court and, three shots later, Justin Carpenter’s putback with three seconds left pulled the Vikings within two. But Coeur d’Alene was out of timeouts, and the final seconds ticked off.

“That run they made in the third quarter, which the’ve done to us a couple times this year; that third quarter is where we’ve seemed to have our hickups against Lake City, and tonight was no different,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Kurt Lundblad, whose team was outscored 14-9 in the third quarter of a 53-47 Lake City win at Cd’A last month, in the Fight for the Fish spirit game. “They showed why they were expected to win this league, and win this district.”

Coeur d’Alene prepared to face Lake City’s zone defense, but the T-Wolves played man to man most of the night.

“We prepared for zone pretty much all week,” Lundblad said. “I didn’t foresee them going man with us. We were a little bit stagnant, not as aggressive against their man as we normally are.”

Lake City gave Coeur d’Alene hope by making just 4 of 9 free throws over the final 1:22. But the Vikings couldn’t take advantage, making just 5 of 10 over the final 2:03.

“I thought we defended pretty well in the first half,” Lundblad said. “But we were not making shots. We were missing free throws, and the turnovers killed us again tonight. Unforced errors all over the place.”

Adams and Vetsch added eight points each for Lake City. J.J. Winger hit two 3s and finished with seven points. Guice had eight rebounds.

Naccarato finished with 13 points and nine boards for the Viks. Carpenter added 12 points, Colby Daniels 11.

Jim Winger said his team’s rebounding was “terrible” ... “awful” ... and said his team looked back instead of looking up the court in the fourth quarter against the press.

But he’ll take the big win on the road, and prepare for state next week.

“At halftime, I was a little worried,” Winger said. “We didn’t have that fun, energized look, and Kyle, something got him mad out there, I saw it on his face and we caught some energy and rode it. The third quarter was massive for us.”

Lake City 16 6 19 11 — 52

Coeur d’Alene 11 12 7 20 — 50

LAKE CITY — Adams 8, Pratt 10, Louie-McGee 0, Vetsch 8, Guice 13, Turner 1, Dahl 3, Winger 7, Mitchell 2, Hancock 0.

COEUR d’ALENE — J. Naccarato 1, Lundblad 2, Paulsen 5, Daniels 11, Carpenter 12, Williams 2, Kluss 6, T. Naccarato 13.