POST FALLS — Colby Gennett of Post Falls and Liam Lloyd of Gonzaga Prep put on an entertaining individual show not often seen around these parts Thursday night.

Lloyd, who recently signed with NCAA Division I Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, finished with a game-high 29 points, most of them with Gennett covering him close enough to feel his breath.

Gennett, who is still mulling his college options, answered with 22 points, 11 rebounds and three steals.

But the difference was, Post Falls got a little more scoring from the others.

Alex Horning added 16 points, Cole Rutherford 15 points and six assists, Caden McLean three 3-pointers and 11 points as the Trojans jumped on top early and held off the Bullpups 71-63 at The Arena.

“In a North Idaho gym, that’s about as good a one-on-one matchup as you’re going to see,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “Those are two highly competitive, highly skilled, pretty good athletes. For being one of the first high school games of the season, this one was played at a pretty high level.”

In the girls game, Katie Fleming scored 14 points and Post Falls weathered a third-quarter comeback from Gonzaga Prep and pulled away for a 61-44 victory.

BOYS

Post Falls 71, Gonzaga Prep 63: Gennett scored the first two points of the game on a driving layin, and Post Falls, in its season opener, never trailed in the game. Every time Prep made a run, the Trojans had an answer.

Lloyd had 12 at the half, Gennett 8 as Post Falls led 32-23.

Gonzaga Prep (0-2), with just a few parts left from a team that won the last two Washington state 4A titles, pulled within 36-33 midway through the third quarter on a 3-pointer by Hodges Flemming, who scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half. But Caden McLean answered with a 3, and Horning’s 3 increased the Trojan lead to 50-39 late in the third.

Prep came no closer than eight in the fourth quarter, and Post Falls led by as much as 14.

“When our ball movement was good and our spacing was good, they had a hard time taking away the shots we wanted to take,” McLean said. “Early in the game it was obvious they were going to cheat to Caden and Colby, which allowed a lot of driving lanes for Cole. Cole did a good job of seeing that, and Alex did a good job of seeing that there were some more open lanes. If a team’s going to try to take away our first and second option, we’re OK going to our third and fourth. And Colby made some really good plays tonight.”

Lloyd, son of Gonzaga assistant coach Tommy Lloyd, hit three 3-pointers, but did much of his damage on drives to the basket. He made one basket on a ball he picked up inside the 3-point line and tossed in as he fell, off-balance, back behind the arc. He went to the line 10 times, making eight.

“We all knew that Liam’s the real deal,” said Gennett, who grew up in Spokane before transfering to Post Falls, and is well versed on the ways of the Greater Spokane League. “Coach assigned me to him in practice earlier this week, and I went out and watched them play (Central Valley; where Lloyd scored 46 in an 87-76 loss), so I kind of understood what he was trying to do. I just tried to take as much away as I could, and he still dropped 29, but we made someone else kill us, and our team defended well, and that’s how it worked.”

Other than Lloyd and Flemming, no one else scored more than six point for Prep, and the other Bullpup players scored just three baskets.

Two years ago, Gonzaga Prep won 68-51 at Post Falls as Anton Watson, now a freshman at Gonzaga, dominated for the Bullpups in a game that wasn’t that close.

“We’ve known Prep’s been on our schedule for a long time,” McLean said. “And Colby remembers — Colby was on our team two years ago when Prep came in here and embarassed us, so we didn’t have to talk too much about anything. And all these other guys were on our JV team, and saw us get embarassed. We take pride that not many teams have come in over the last 12 years and just shoved it down our throat on our home court; Prep did that. So we didn’t have to talk a whole lot about that. ... It wasn’t even the score; it was the way they physically manhandled us, and physically took us out of things. That was not going to happen tonight.”

Gonzaga Prep 11 12 18 22 — 63

Post Falls 14 18 18 21 — 71

GONZAGA PREP — Lloyd 29, Kiepe 2, Few 0, Flemming 22, VonBuchwaldt 4, Reeves 6, Ortega 0.

POST FALLS — Gennett 22, McLean 11, Rodriguez 2, Peterson 0, Rutherford 15, Ballew 2, Lee 3, Horning 3.

GIRLS

Post Falls 61, Gonzaga Prep 44: Fleming, who sat much of the first half with foul trouble, scored 11 of her 14 points in the second half.

“Katie came in and made some key plays, got to the basket in the second half,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said.

Ali Carpenter scored 11 points off the bench for Post Falls (3-1). Dylan Lovett added 10.

“We’re still trying to find our flow offensively,” Allert said. “I thought we did a good job of making plays out of chaos.”

Post Falls led by as much as 10 points in the first half. Prep took the lead at 31-29 with a 10-2 run to open the third quarter. But after a timeout, Lexi Heath sank a 3-pointer for Post Falls, and the Trojans finished the quarter on a 11-1 run.

“We played Sandpoint (a 74-36 win) and I told the girls that was probably one of the best offensive execution games that I’ve coached,” Allert said. “and then we went to Chiawana (a 53-33 loss) and it was the exact opposite. It was probably one of the worst. Today was somewhere in between.”

Demi Howlett and Lakin Gardner scored 12 points each for Gonzaga Prep (1-1).

Gonzaga Prep 7 14 11 12 — 44

Post Falls 15 12 13 21 — 61

GONZAGA PREP — Benn 0, Derzay 6, Lynn 5, Myers 1, Carney 1, Howlett 12, Gardner 12, McIntyre 0, Sh. Byrd 0, Si. Bird 4, Henderson 3.

POST FALLS — Heath 6, Blake 3, Darwood 8, Lovett 10, Johnson 0, Fleming 14, Smith 7, LaFountaine 0, Carpenter 11, Christensen 2.