POST FALLS — The adjustments had to do more with effort than with Xs and Os for Post Falls, which trailed throughout much of Thursday night’s 5A Inland Empire League boys basketball matchup with Coeur d’Alene.

The ball movement got better, and the shots started falling.

Funny how that works.

Post Falls outscored Coeur d’Alene 31-10 over the last 12 1/2 minutes of the game, and was rewarded with a 51-40 victory at The Arena.

“You’ve got to give Coeur d’Alene a lot of credit,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said of the Vikings, who used a zone defense to bother the Trojans offensively. “They came out with a plan to take away our rhythm shots. They did a good job baiting us into rushing quick 3s and deep 3s early in a possession, and hoping we would miss those.

“At halftime, our talk was more about our energy, and instead of falling for the bait, continue to do what we want to do. You’ll notice in the second half we still got our 3s, but they were in our normal rhythm. I thought we took the 3s we wanted, not the 3s Coeur d’Alene wanted us to take.”

Coeur d’Alene (7-8, 2-2 5A IEL), which lost at home to Post Falls by 24 points three weeks ago, led 14-8 after one quarter and 24-17 at halftime. The Vikings opened the lead up even more in the third quarter, getting back-to-back driving layins from Drew Hostetter and Caleb Beggerly. Then, Sam Matheson’s pull-up jumper from the top of the key gave Cd’A a 30-20 lead with 4 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter.

Then Casey Walker, a senior reserve known mostly for his defense, gave Post Falls (12-5, 4-0) a spark. Walker started a 10-0 run with a 3-point play, then finished it with a pair of free throws. He also fed Matt Fleming for a layup during that run, and also finished with four rebounds.

“We don’t win that game if Casey Walker doesn’t come in defensively and do what he needs to do,” McLean said. “And then Alan Ballew gave us huge minutes off the bench, getting some rebounds and defending — and more importantly, executing on the offensive end. He and Casey did a phenomenal job for what those two bring to us; they couldn’t have done their job any better tonight.”

Post Falls took the lead for good when Nic Morris fed Jake Pfennigs for a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 40-37 with 3 1/2 minutes to play.

Tanner McCliment-Call followed with a 3-pointer from a feed by Colby Gennett. Gennett then fed Alan Ballew for a layup on a high/low play, and the Trojans finished off the Vikings with an 11-0 run.

Coeur d’Alene was 9 of 18 from the field in the first half, including 4 of 8 on 3-pointers. But the Vikings were just 5 of 22 from the field in the second half, and missed all seven attempts from 3-point range.

“For 2 1/2 quarters, we played really well,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Tony Hanna, whose club would have moved into a first-place tie with Post Falls had it been able to finish off its upset bid. “Executed a game plan, and unfortunately when they started pressing us, they picked up the tempo, and we didn’t do a good job of keeping our composure. But we’ve just got to put ourselves in that situation more often, and figure out how to play with the lead — figure out how to play with confidence and finish out some basketball games. But I was really proud of the way we played.”

Gennett, a sophomore, finished with 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals for Post Falls, which instead increased its lead in league to two games, with two league games remaining. Pfennigs added 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Post Falls was just 6 of 26 from the field in the first half (including 2 for 11 from 3-point range), with 10 turnovers. The Trojans cut their turnovers down to five in the second half, and was 9 of 20 from the field, including 3 of 8 from behind the arc.

Matheson led Coeur d’Alene with 13 points. Beggerly added nine, and Carter Friesz had seven rebounds and two steals.

On Saturday, Coeur d’Alene plays host to Moscow, and Post Falls is home vs. Sandpoint.

Coeur d’Alene 14 10 7 9 — 40

Post Falls 8 9 13 21 — 51

COEUR d’ALENE — Kile 0, Delbridge 0, Leifer 0, Whittaker 3, Matheson 13, Friesz 4, Margo 0, Beggerly 9, Hostetter 7, Johnson 1, Dunteman 0, Bloom 1, Edwards 2.

POST FALLS — Gennett 14, Buer 0, McCliment-Call 8, Walker 5, Bourgard 3, Fleming 4, Balley 2, Pfennigs 13, Morris 2.