COEUR d’ALENE — At halftime, Lake City coach Brian Fulp stressed to his squad about the importance of finishing.

Boy, did the Timberwolves ever.

Lake City outscored Lewiston 26-0 in the third quarter, running away with a 52-28 win in the 5A Inland Empire League finale on Friday night.

The win also clinched a state playoff berth for the Timberwolves in Fulp’s second season. It’s Lake City’s first playoff berth since 2014, and the T-Wolves’ first league win since 2015.

“Coming into this week, we knew we had a chance, but had to win this game,” Fulp said. “We needed a bigger point differential just to be safe.”

Lake City (4-5, 1-2 5A IEL) will travel to Mountain View of Meridian in the opening round of the playoffs.

“I’ve been with this group since they were on JV,” Fulp said. “I’ve been telling them this will be the class that helps us get this thing turned around to what Lake City football is. We’ve had a lot of adversity this year, and to lose guys like we have (starting quarterback Chris Irvin and running back Uriah Chavez), a lot of lesser kids would fold. I’m so proud of them and their perseverance. It was a big night for them.”

Senior Logan Jeanselme finished with eight catches for 202 yards and three touchdowns, two coming in the third quarter.

“I was trying to see how the defense was playing me,” Jeanselme said. “Once we figured it out, we kind of exploited it a little bit.”

Jeanselme scored on touchdown passes of 73, 22 and 45 yards in the second half after only having 41 yards receiving in the first half.

“We’d struggled the last couple of weeks getting him the ball,” Fulp said. “But when we find him in the passing game, that’s when we have success. That was something we wanted to get to tonight.”

Sophomore quarterback Josiah Weaver completed 17 of 21 passes for 320 yards for Lake City.

“Josiah had a great night tonight,” Fulp said. “For how last week went (a 45-0 loss to Coeur d’Alene), and it didn’t go well. We had to look ourselves in the mirror and get past what happened. We knew all that mattered was this week.”

Lake City led 14-7 at halftime, then forced two Lewiston turnovers in the third quarter to break the game open.

“We just refocused on the game,” Fulp said. “We talked about our assignments, execution and just finishing the game.”

Lewiston, which was eliminated from playoff contention following last week’s loss to Post Falls, finishes 3-6, 0-3.

Lewiston 0 7 7 21 — 28

Lake City 8 6 26 12 — 52

First quarter

LC — Matt Whitcomb 4 pass from Josiah Weaver (Ethan Russell pass from Weaver), 3:29

Second quarter

Lew — Cruz Hepburn 19 pass from Kash Lang (Harrison Smith kick), 9:13

LC — Natheniel Hayes 4 run (pass failed), 2:21

Third quarter

LC — Jace Bowman 13 pass from Weaver (pass failed), 8:20

LC — Logan Jeanselme 73 pass from Weaver (pass failed), 6:45

LC — Hayes 2 run (pass failed), 1:57

LC — Jeanselme 22 pass from Weaver (Weaver run), 1:30

Fourth quarter

LC — Jeanselme 45 pass from Weaver (run failed), 11:51

Lew — Caeden Frei 7 run (Smith kick), 10:20

LC — Weaver 2 run (pass failed), 5:25

Lew — Frei 15 pass from Lang (Smith kick), 3:39

Lew — Frei 5 run (Smith kick), :08

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Lew, Zagelow 1-0, Lang 11-52, Hepburn 10-45, Smith 1-15, Walker 2-2, Frei 7-32. LC, Hayes 25-127, Weaver 4-(-8), Jeanselme 1-2, Hardin 2-5.

PASSING — Lew, Lang, 6-19-1-118. LC, Weaver, 17-21-1-320.

RECEIVING — Lew, Grainger 2-68, Hepburn 2-29, Ahlers 1-6, Frei 1-15. LC, Whitcomb 4-54, Jeanselme 8-202, Webb 2-32, Russell 2-12, Bowman 1-13.