POCATELLO — Even in 2021, seeing a crowd elicits a double-take. Sometimes you look around and everything seems normal. Other times you look around and an athletic director is sanitizing seats and everyone’s in a mask sitting away from each other and reality sets back in.

That was the feeling at Tuesday’s Century boys basketball game, the first basketball game the school has hosted with a crowd this season.

At the turn of the year, Idaho Governor Brad Little scratched the 10-person maximum rule, implementing new policies that allow every high school athlete to have two guests. For many Century and Highland parents, Tuesday was the first time they’ve seen their kids play basketball in nine months.

“It was fun to see some fans,” Highland coach Ty Pearson said. “The kids enjoyed seeing their parents there.”

Added Century coach Ryan Frost: “It was the first time with a full crowd where it kind of felt normal for a little bit — which I think is good for everyone.”

The Diamondbacks survived a late Highland run and earned a 50-45 victory over their crosstown rival. The cramped Century gym got excited, but never loud. Yet, even in the absence of the full pandemonium that usually occurs when two city teams face off on the hardwood, the 60 or so fans tried their best to recreate the usual scenes.

There was the Century side rising in unison with the Diamondbacks’ bench as a Highland possession dragged on for 25 seconds … then 35 … then 45, their claps drawing more vigor and their voices rising with each pass, especially those that didn’t find Highland’s 6-foot-7 center Mason Mickelsen.

“They triple-teamed Mason and we just couldn’t get it into him,” Pearson said. “We have to work on some entry passes to get it into him. We have to play through him. We didn’t look at him enough and when the pass was there, we didn’t make it.”

There was that distinguishable echo of hard plastic as fans stomp down like they’re squishing a bug. Highland’s Easton Durham, who scored a game-high 19 points, and Century’s Bruin Fleischmann, who tallied a baker’s dozen, elicited most of those stomps, their contested layups and 3-pointers drawing applause from every corner of the gym.

There were the primal complaining to referees -- by players, coaches and, finally, parents. In a packed gym, yells from the stands can grow extreme in a hurry. In an empty space, gripes land flat when there’s not 1,000 other vocal people just as ticked off.

And there were moments for eruption -- both good and bad.

Durham caught an elbow to the face, chipping his teeth and bloodying his mouth. Fellow Highland guard Easton Wheelock got a boxer’s cut on the corner of his eye and also left the game for a little bit. A packed Rams student section would not have been quiet in those moments.

Both teams made significant runs. Highland’s came in the fourth quarter, when Durham took over and shrunk the Rams’ deficit to double digits. And there were few minutes each quarter when a different Diamondback would get hot and control the game.

Eli Williams hit a pair of quick triples in the second quarter. Emmett Holt had some nifty buckets late. Isaac Panttaja and Deakon Blackhawk controlled the third and fourth quarters, respectively, by hitting a combined nine free throws. And Bruin Fleischmann scored six of Century’s eight points in the first period.

“Throughout the year, it has been Emmett or Eli being the top scorer,” Frost said. “But is so nice to know that we have a third guy who can come in and get like 10 points. And it did not surprise me at all that Bruin is able to do that.”

Perhaps, in time, students will also be able to see Fleischmann and all the Diamondbacks’ offensive prowess. On Tuesday, it was only their parents. And oddly, the small faction of spectators makes Frost and Pearson almost yearn for the at-capacity crowds more than if the bleachers were vacant.

“It was a rivalry game and our first game with fans,” Frost said. “It was good but it was kind of sad. In a normal year, that’s a packed gym and it’s a rowdy environment.”

“That game would be rocking,” Pearson added. “There would be so many people — so it still didn’t quite feel normal.”

CENTURY 50, HIGHLAND 45

Highland 7 4 14 20 — 45

Century 8 16 12 14 — 50

Highland — Durham 19, Mickelsen 10, Barela 6, Huelsman 5, Wright 3, Rudd 2.

Century — B. Fleischmann 13, Holt 10, I. Panttaja 9, Williams 6, Tolman 4, Blackhawk 4, T. Fleischmann 4.