COEUR d’ALENE — As expected, Post Falls clinched the 5A Inland Empire League girls basketball championship Friday night.

But Lake City made the Trojans work for it.

One week after losing to Post Falls by 39 points, Lake City pushed the Trojans for three quarters before Post Falls eased away for a 36-22 victory at Lake City.

Post Falls (18-2, 5-0 5A IEL) led just 20-19 midway through the third quarter. Lake City (11-8, 3-2) had a handful of chances at that point to take the lead, but missed shots and turnovers prevented that from happening.

Macky Morris banked in a 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter for Post Falls, and the Trojans scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter.

“Give all the credit to Lake City,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “They played really, really hard. Defensively, they were really good. Some of those turnovers are on us, but Lake City caused a lot of that. They pressured us, and we never did get into a real good flow. I thought we got tentative, and didn’t attack well when they went to the zone. We didn’t execute very well, and I thought we were a little flat, but you have to give a lot of the credit to them.”

Melody Kempton finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots for Post Falls in its lowest-scoring output of the season. Tyler McCliment-Call added seven points, four rebounds, three steals and three assists.

Post Falls had five turnovers in the first five minutes, and led just 2-0.

But Lake City, its zone defense rarely letting the Trojans near the basket, forced 20 turnovers and held the visitors to 13-of-38 shooting. Lake City was patient on offense in an attempt to limit possessions, but made just 9 of 45 from the field.

“Proud of our effort, especially defensively,” Lake City coach James Anderson said. “They have a ton of offensive talent. We took a little different approach tonight.

“Our goal was to get seven ‘kills,’ which is three consecutive defensive stops in a row, and we thought we’d have a chance to win if we could stop them three consecutive times on seven different occasions. And we got to that goal, but we just couldn’t put enough points on the board to finish that, but I thought it gave us a chance.”

Kills?

“It was actually my mother, who knows absolutely nothing about basketball,” Anderson explained. “She sent me an article about a team that had improved dramatically defensively. And they were statting it, and the only stat they looked at was a new concept they called ‘kills,’ which is three consecutive stops. It just kills the momentum of the other team.”

Payton Barber hit two 3s and had six points off the bench for Lake City.

Lake City travels to Lewiston on Monday. Post Falls plays host to Coeur d’Alene on Thursday to wrap up the regular season.

Post Falls 9 9 5 13 — 36

Lake City 2 12 5 3 — 22

POST FALLS — Gleaves 0, Morris 5, Gardiner 2, Brennan 5, T. McCliment-Call 7, J. McCliment-Call 5, Kempton 12, Parks 0.

LAKE CITY — Avery 2, Barber 6, Mitchell 4, Teets 0, Rieken 2, Wilson 0, Rewers 5, Simpson 3.

Lewiston 61

Coeur d’Alene 51

COEUR d’ALENE — Rey Louden scored 14 points for the Vikings, who got as close as three points in the fourth quarter, but could not come all the way back in a 5A Inland Empire League loss to the Bengals at Elmer Jordan Court.

Jaelyn Brainard-Adams scored 10 points and Emily Minerath added eight for Coeur d’Alene (6-11, 0-5 5A IEL), which hosts Big Sky of Missoula today at 2 p.m.

“Our girls played extremely hard tonight,” Coeur d’Alene assistant coach Nicole Symons said. “Even though we got down 12-0, they kept their composure and fought back. Jaelyn stepped up and had a great night offensively and defensively. Emily stepped up defensively in the second half to help us get back in the game.”

Alyssa Ralstin scored 19 points for Lewiston (14-5, 2-3), which hosts Lake City on Monday.

Lewiston 16 21 9 15 — 61

Coeur d’Alene 7 15 12 17 — 51

LEWISTON — Randall 15, Ralstin 19, Wells 0, Cornelia 5, Genzer 5, Isley 2, Cady 6, Eke 0, Stoddard 7, Richardson 2.

COEUR d’ALENE — Minerath 8, Morton 5, Brainard-Adams 10, Chavez 2, Whiteman 12, Younker 0, Louden 14.

Sandpoint 65

Lakeland 31

SANDPOINT — Grace Kirscher scored 17 of her game-high 27 points in the second quarter, sending the Bulldogs past the Hawks in the Battle for the Paddle spirit game at Les Rogers Court.

Lauryn Cooper scored nine points for Lakeland (4-12, 0-2 4A IEL), which hosts Moscow on Thursday.

Ciera Bailey scored 14 points for Sandpoint (9-7, 2-0), which hosts Sandpoint tonight at 5.

Lakeland 9 6 11 5 — 31

Sandpoint 15 25 8 17 — 65

LAKELAND — Leon 2, Cooper 9, Schnepf 3, Edigner 0, Pruitt 4, Elpers 2, Loutzenhiser 2, Neff 2, Kirk 0, Stutheit 0, McDevitt 2, Kime 0, Boyer 0, Ryan 5.

SANDPOINT — Mattila 2, Yunek 0, Bailey 14, Edwards 2, Morgan 12, Driggs 3, Kaul 1, Larson 2, Laybourne 2, Golder 0, Anderson 0, Kirscher 27, Petit 0.

Hellgate 39

Genesis Prep 35

MISSOULA, Mont. — Bella Murekatete scored 13 points for the Jaguars, who were outscored 14-1 in the fourth quarter of a loss to the Knights.

Genesis Prep (8-8) hosts Lakeside tonight at 6 at Post Falls Middle School.

Genesis Prep 11 9 14 1 — 35

Hellgate 11 10 4 14 — 39

GENESIS PREP — Morrow 7, Schroeder 8, Greiner 0, iManzi 0, Scribner 4, Martinez 3, Murekatete 13.

HELLGATE — scoring not available.