POST FALLS — The Post Falls High boys basketball team had two days to erase the sour taste of its first home loss in three seasons.

And with a little better defense, six first-half 3-pointers and some big-time off the bench, the Trojans did just that.

Jake Pfennigs totaled 21 points and 14 rebounds as Post Falls eliminated Coeur d’Alene 65-46 in the 5A Region 1 second-place game Thursday night at The Arena.

Tanner McCliment-Call added 15 points for the Trojans (17-3), who face Capital (17-8) of Boise in a state play-in game Saturday at 3 p.m. at Grangeville High.

“Going back to Tuesday, I don’t think we played that bad,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said, referring to the 51-48 loss to Lewiston in the regional title game. “What Lewiston did Tuesday was what they should have been doing from Day 1. Tonight we ran the same stuff; we did a good job of not settling for the 3, and tried to get to the lane. I thought we did a good job of doing that, and breaking their defense down.”

Pfennigs made two 3s and scored eight points in the first quarter as Post Falls took a 14-11 lead. Back-to-back 3s from David Bourgard hiked the Trojans’ lead to 25-12 midway through the second quarter. Coeur d’Alene (11-11) responded with a 9-0 run, but Post Falls scored the final seven points in the half for a 36-25 lead.

Post Falls got a big lift from its bench in the first half, with Nick Morris scoring all four of his points, Casey Walker four of his six and Cameron McKeown five of his six.

“The key to the game by far tonight, in the first half we had some foul issues, and our kids off the bench played phenomenal tonight. Our depth helped us at a crucial time in the first half. They extended the lead, and allowed some other kids to sit on the bench and not let the game get away from us.”

Post Falls opened up a 53-38 lead early in the fourth quarter. Coeur d’Alene forced a couple turnovers with its half-court trap and pulled within 10 with 5 minutes left. But the Trojans righted the ship and sealed the game from the foul line. Post Falls was 24 of 27 from the line for the game, including 20 of 23 in the second half after getting into the bonus with 2 minutes left in the third quarter.

Post Falls made 6 of 11 3s in the first half, and finished 7 of 17 from behind the arc. The Trojans were 17 of 35 from the field.

“I don’t think it was a lack of effort; it never has been with these guys,” first-year Coeur d’Alene coach Tony Hanna said. “You’ve got to tip your cap to Post Falls; they came out hitting a lot of 3s on us, even when we were contesting them.”

Joey Naccarato, who has signed with UMass-Lowell, led Coeur d’Alene with 15 points and six rebounds.

“He is a nightmare to defend at the high school level,” McLean said of the 6-foot-4 wing. “He gets it going from the outside, he can beat you off the dribble ... he plays as hard as any kid in this league has played in a long time. But we just tried to make him work for everything, and make them be a perimeter-shooting team. I thought they were better going to the basket, so if they’re going to beat us tonight shooting jump shots, they’re going to beat us with their second option. Or maybe third option.”

Coeur d’Alene shot just 14 of 47 from the field, including 3 of 18 from 3-point range. The Vikings were 15 of 23 from the free-throw line, six of those misses coming in the second half.

“They do a good job of containing the basketball,” Hanna said of Post Falls. “They forced us to shoot from the outside a little bit. One of our strengths is our athleticism, and our ability to get to the hoop, and they did a pretty good job of keeping us away from that. And then when we shot ’em, we didn’t make ’em, unfortunately.”

Point guard Brody Lundblad scored all 10 of his points in the first half for Coeur d’Alene.

“We just had to keep them off the boards,” Pfennigs said. “It definitely wasn’t the way we wanted it to go on Tuesday, but we all realized we just have to get it done the hard way, and we’ll go back and get it done on Saturday.”

Capital finished third in the 5A Southern Idaho Conference, and fifth in the District 3 tournament. The Eagles beat Post Falls in last year’s state play-in game at Grangeville, and “had a really good time doing it, and was really excited,” McLean said. “So we will be ready for them. Our kids are ready to go to Grangeville.”

Coeur d’Alene 11 14 11 10 — 46

Post Falls 14 22 12 17 — 65

COEUR d’ALENE — Lundblad 10, Kofmehl 0, Matheson 8, Yankoff 6, Bronson 5, Beggerly 2, Naccarato 15, I. Edwards 0, K. Edwards 0.

POST FALLS — Gennett 7, Thompson 0, McKeown 6, McCliment-Call 15, Walker 6, Bourgard 6, Ballew 0, Pfennigs 21, Morris 4.