As the road to the state girls basketball tournament gets a little closer to the exit in the coming weeks, first-year Coeur d’Alene High coach Scott Stockwell had the chance to go home for a couple hours on Thursday night.

And it’s where he’ll start his postseason career as a head coach.

STOCKWELL WAS a high-scoring guard on the Post Falls High boys basketball team from 2001-05, eventually going on to play at North Idaho College and NAIA Carroll College. Once his playing days concluded, Stockwell was an assistant to his father, Dave, in the boys basketball program at Lakeland for the last five years.

“Tonight’s the first time I’ve been here in a long time,” Stockwell said Thursday. “I kind of got goosebumps walking in here tonight.”

Stockwell’s Coeur d’Alene team lost to Post Falls 74-34 in his return to conclude 5A Inland Empire League play.

“It’s unfortunate the outcome of the game,” Stockwell said. “But it was fun coming back.”

Coeur d’Alene will enter the Region 1 tournament as the fourth seed, playing again at league champion Post Falls next Friday at 7 p.m. The Trojans are coached by Marc Allert, who was an assistant coach with the Post Falls boys when Stockwell played for the Trojans.

“I love facing him,” Stockwell said of Allert. “He’s taught me a lot over the years. And he’s someone I look up to. Seeing him over there, it’s a lot better when it’s a bit of a closer game, but it’s really fun.”

COEUR d’ALENE CAME up short 46-44 in the first game between the two teams on Jan. 10 at Coeur d’Alene High.

“It’s fun,” Allert said. “Scott is a good guy and is doing a great job with those kids. They’ve gotten a ton better and it’s nice to see. He came into the gym tonight asking what locker room he’s supposed to go into like he’s never been here before, but he knows. It’s fun to face him.”

And after both play nonleague games to round out the regular season — Coeur d’Alene hosting Lakeland on Wednesday and Post Falls hosting Moscow last night, they’ll see each other again real soon.

“It’s a little different, but just the way things worked out this year,” said Allert of seeing Coeur d’Alene again so soon. “They’re a tough team. It will be a different game the next time around.”

Regardless, with a week to prepare for the rematch, both teams will hope to build on Thursday’s outcome.

“Our whole thing this year is effort,” Stockwell said. “And we’re taking it one quarter, eight minutes at a time and working hard defensively. If we can do that, we usually do pretty well.”

All nine players who stepped on the court for Post Falls scored in Thursday’s win that clinched the program’s first league title since the 2012-13 season, also the Trojans’ last appearance in the state tournament.

“We did some good things and tried some different things we’ve been working on in practice (against Coeur d’Alene),” Allert said. “We’ll play Moscow and try to fine-tune some things.”

Keeping things tuned can be the difference in staying on the road to state, and taking that early exit.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.