COEUR d’ALENE — The Fight for the Fish games are a lot about spirit and community goodwill.

But, like any other game, the players pay attention to the scoreboard.

“I thought it was indescribable,” said Lake City High senior Seth Hanson, who scored a game-high 16 points in the Timberwolves’ 53-44 victory over Coeur d’Alene on Friday night at Lake City. “Knowing what happened last year, losing by 29. It’s been on our mind since.”

In the girls game, junior Brooklyn Rewers totaled 19 points, 17 rebounds and two blocked shots as Lake City overcame a slow start to defeat Coeur d’Alene 61-47.

“Brooklyn was incredible on defense,” Lake City coach James Anderson said. “We knew the game plan was to get her into foul trouble.”

An overflow crowd estimated at 2,800 braved a winter snowstorm and packed the Lake City gym for the 22nd edition of the spirit competition between the city’s rivals. A panel of judges awarded the wooden fish trophy to Coeur d’Alene High, the first time in 10 years Coeur d’Alene has won the spirit competition.

BOYS

Lake City 53, Coeur d’Alene 44: Hanson, one of just two seniors for Lake City (8-3, 1-0 5A Inland Empire League) was effective taking the ball to the basket against the aggressive Vikings (5-6, 0-1 5A IEL).

“They’re always physical, and they’re going to get up into you, and get after you,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said of Coeur d’Alene. “But our kids just executed. We handled their full-court press; our guards are pretty good with the ball.”

Slender point guard Kolten Mitchell, one of three freshman starters for Lake City, hit three 3-pointers in the second half, including two in a 90-second stretch in the third period that took Lake City from a three-point deficit to a five-point lead.

“Teams like to belly up on him because he’s skinny, but he’s fearless,” Winger said. “Kolton can handle the ball as good as anybody. And he can shoot.”

Mitchell finished with 12 points.

Lake City increased its lead to 50-38 with 1:20 remaining. Coeur d’Alene responded with a 3-pointer by Mayson Whittaker and a steal and dunk by Cameren Cope. The Vikings forced another turnover with its press and got fouled, but missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the T-Wolves sealed the win from the line.

Devon Johnson scored seven of his 13 points in the first quarter for Coeur d’Alene. Whittaker hit three 3-pointers and added nine points. But the Vikings shot just over 30 percent from the field, compared to just under 50 percent by Lake City.

“There were some things that were glaring, the we need to improve on,” Coeur d’Alene coach Tony Hanna said. “To be honest, we’re not very good against a zone defense so far. I thought we crashed the boards and our intensity level was high. But we’ve got to knock down some shots.”

Coeur d’Alene 13 9 12 11 — 44

Lake City 17 6 16 14 — 53

COEUR d’ALENE — Whittaker 9, Bengtson 1, C. Smith 0, Johnson 13, Karns 6, Cope 6, O. Smith 1, Prka 0, McLaughlin 8.

LAKE CITY — Janke 1, Irwin 8, Kiesbuy 5, Spellman 0, Johnson 8, Hanson 16, Mitchell 12, Sundstrom 0, Meredith 3.

GIRLS

Lake City 61, Coeur d’Alene 47: Lake City (10-5, 2-0 5A IEL) opened in a man-to-man defense, and Coeur d’Alene (11-4, 0-1) used freshman Madi Symons to pull Rewers away from the basket, then drive on her in an attempt to draw fouls.

Symons scored seven of her game-high 20 points in the first quarter, and the Vikings led 9-3. When Lake City switched to a zone, it slowed down the Vikings.

And the 6-foot-4 Rewers was whistled for just one foul in the game.

“Their zone slowed us down,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Nicole Symons, mother of Madi. “We were rolling against their man.”

“She’s a great competitor,” Rewers said of Madi Symons. “I just had to stay ahead in the foul count.”

Junior Ashlynn Shanley came off the bench and hit a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter as Lake City scored 22 points in the quarter and took a 25-24 halftime lead.

“The environment got to us early; that was clear,” Anderson said. “I could have called some timeouts early, but we’d been sucker-punched down in Boise (three tough losses in three days), and I wanted to see how they responded.”

Senior guard Aubrey Avery, who returned to action Wednesday after missing six weeks with a broken wrist on her left (nonshooting) hand, scored eight of her 10 points in the third quarter. She opened the quarter with a 3-pointers, then a couple minutes later she was fouled on a 3-pointer, and hit all three free throws to give Lake City its largest lead of the game at 33-28.

“Knocking those three free throws down, you could feel the tempo change,” Avery said.

Shanley finished with three 3s and nine points for the T-Wolves, who also got six points off the bench from senior Madi Chase and a 3-pointer by sophomore Hailey Jo Parks.

“I thought our girls did execute the game plan, trying to take away their main scorers,” Nicole Symons said. “Lake City’s bench hit some big shots we weren’t counting on them hitting.”

Jaden Chavez added eight points for Coeur d’Alene, which travels to Post Falls on Tuesday.

Lake City visits Lewiston on Tuesday.

Coeur d’Alene 9 15 13 10 — 47

Lake City 3 22 19 17 — 61

COEUR d’ALENE — Matheson 0, Brainard-Adams 6, Whiteman 0, Symons 20, Younker 6, Chavez 8, Froelich 0, Burke 7.

LAKE CITY — Pickford 1, Avery 10, Miller 9, Chase 6, Parks 3, Shanley 9, Roberts 0, Rewers 19, Hawkins 2, Munoz 2, Stoddard 0, Reynolds 0.