COEUR d’ALENE — On a night when baskets were hard to come by throughout the 5A Inland Empire League, Post Falls got hot — relatively speaking — when it counted to wrap up another outright league title.

Alex Horning scored 17 points, Caden McLean hit three 3-pointers and added 14 points as the Post Falls Trojans — minus their head coach, Mike McLean — pulled away to beat the Lake City Timberwolves 47-34.

Post Falls (18-3, 5-1 5A IEL) won its fourth straight outright league title, and has now won or shared the last six league titles.

McLean, who suffered a dislocated right ankle and assorted other injuries to his foot and ankle in a mishap on the family farm/ranch on Super Bowl Sunday, underwent surgery on Thursday and missed the game per doctors’ orders. He watched the game at home on Facebook Live.

Rob McCarthy, in his second year as Post Falls assistant varsity coach, assumed the head coaching duties Friday night.

“I’m going to give it (the win) to Mike; whatever (his record) is, he’s got one more,” McCarthy said. “It’s a different role; Mike handles a lot, and does a great job. There’s no replacement for him. We held the rope; collectively as a staff (which included JV coach Brian Carlson and freshman coach Devon Loy), I think we did a good job.”

Coupled with Coeur d’Alene’s 34-33 win at Lewiston on Friday night (see B2), the seeds are set for the 5A Region 1 tournament.

Next Friday in the first round, No. 4 Lake City (13-7, 2-4) plays at No. 1 Post Falls, and No. 3 Coeur d’Alene (7-12, 2-4) travels to No. 2 Lewiston (12-6, 3-3). Both games are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Coeur d’Alene earned the tiebreaker for the third seed over Lake City by one point, after the teams split their league games. Lake City won by nine points in the Fight for the Fish game, then Coeur d’Alene won by 10 points in the rematch.

On Friday night, with Post Falls clinging to a 25-24 lead with 3 minutes left in the third quarter, Caden McLean hit a 3-pointer. After Lake City missed two free throw, McLean fed Colby Gennett for a 3 and a 31-24 Trojans lead after 3.

McLean fed reserve James Lee for a 3 for Post Falls to open the fourth. McLean took a cross-court pass from Gennett and sank a 3 from the left side. Horning, who did most of his damage inside, scored seven points in the final quarter.

Post Falls finished 16 of 42 (38.1 percent) from the field, including 10 of 20 in the second half.

“We just weren’t making our shots inside. Usually we are really good, that they just weren’t falling tonight,” said Caden McLean, Mike’s son, who had four assists and a pair of steals. “It was a little bit different (not having the head coach there), but it’s so late in the season, we already know what to do.”

Gennett finished with seven points, 10 rebounds, three steals, three assists and two blocked shots.

“For about three quarters I was happy, especially with our defense,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said. “We didn’t want to have McLean and (Isaac) Ballew to have free shots out there ... and then try to contain the other guys. The fourth quarter we broke down a little bit, but offensively we didn’t attack enough; we kinda got a merry-go-round going around on the perimeter. But they do a good job of pressuring up, and doing a good job on our ball screens.”

Jack Kiesbuy led Lake City with nine points. The Timberwolves were effective creating opportunities at times with drives to the basket, but shot just 13 of 36 (36.1 percent) from the field.

“We didn’t really explode off screens,” Winger said. “When we’re really going, we come off those screens hard and attack the paint. I don’t think we had the zest on that we usually do. We have to do that all the time, not sometimes.”

“Our defensive energy, our defensive intensity was pretty good,” said McCarthy, son of Neil McCarthy, who coached Bishop Kelly’s boys for some three decades, a span which included stars Abe Jackson and Corey Violette. “Our offense struggled getting going, but we got going in the second half a little bit, getting the ball inside and finishing around the basket a little bit.”

Post Falls finished 5-0 in Lake City’s gym this season — including three wins in the Lake City Invitational, and one vs. Lewiston in a game moved from Post Falls due to a power outage.

Lake City wraps up its regular season Tuesday at home vs. Lakeland.

Post Falls is idle until regionals.

Post Falls 10 9 12 16 — 47

Lake City 8 6 10 10 — 34

POST FALLS — Gennett 7, McLean 14, Rodriguez 0, Rutherford 4, Ballew 3, Lee 2, Horning 17.

LAKE CITY — Janke 2, Irvin 6, Kiesbuy 9, Spellman 0, Johnson 5, Hanson 7, Mitchell 3, Sundstrom 0, Meredith 2.