IRON RIVER — Many times when a talented young prep basketball player gets promoted to the varsity squad early in their career, they struggle adapting to a game that’s quicker and more physical than they’re used to.

They often display inconsistency, and at times, suffer from a lack of confidence when inevitable difficulties arise.

Count Kingsford sophomore Alyvia Kowalski in that group. The Flivver wing played on the varsity squad last season and is a starter this year. While showing promise from the start, she has experienced some of the common struggles of the inexperienced player.

But on Monday night against West Iron County, Kowalski put together her breakout game, scoring 22 points and leading Kingsford to a 49-36 victory over the Wykons in a nonconference game at Charles Greenlund Gymnasium.

Kowalski repeatedly knocked down big shots off feeds from freshman point guard Aubrie Moore and helped keep the Flivvers in front from the start to finish.

“Alyvia, in particular, has the ability, but if things don’t go her way, she tends to kind of think, ‘Oh gosh, oh no,'” Flivver coach Ginger Moore said. “She wants to do well and she was on varsity last year, but it’s a big jump.

“Obviously she had a great performance (tonight). She shot the ball well, she attacked the rim and she defended one of their better players. All-around, she just had a top-notch game.”

Kowalski’s performance came at an opportune time for the Flivvers (4-4), who were missing one of their best players, senior starter Anna Bortolini, who didn’t play because of a wrist injury.

Kowalski started the game with a jumper before Aubrie Moore hit a floater.

Shortly after, Kowalski drove for her second hoop followed by a transition layup from Abby Przeslakowski give the Flivvers an 8-0 lead with 2:06 left to play in the opening quarter.

While the Flivvers were locked in from the start, the Wykons (2-4) were anything but.

Coming off a 22-point win over Forest Park on Jan. 3, West Iron was a step slow all night against the Flivvers.

Despite playing on their home floor, the Wykons were stone cold from the perimeter and struggled to penetrate against the Flivvers’ man-to-man defense.

The result was a 7½ minute-long dry stretch to start the game and a 1-point first quarter.

Furthermore, the Wykons didn’t sink their first basket from the field until the 4:09 mark of the second quarter at which point they trailed 15-4.

“I thought we got out-hustled, outplayed and outcoached,” WIC coach Eric Shamion said. “We started off so slow in the first quarter.

“We couldn’t score and gave up too many easy buckets and got behind and had to play from behind the whole night.”

Shamion called a timeout early in the second quarter and implored his players to drive to the basket and not settle for all the 3-point shots they were taking and missing.

Freshman guard Bristol Shamion took the message from her father to heart and broke the long dry stretch with a driving bank shot.

The play kick-started an 8-2 run to end the second quarter as WIC went into the halftime break trailing 18-12.

All four hoops during that stretch were on drives to the bucket.

Unfortunately for the Wykons, that ended early in the third quarter.

The Flivvers closed off the drives and Kowalski came out of the locker room on fire, knocking down consecutive 3-pointers to push her team’s lead back up to 12.

After a bucket by Moore, Kowalski sank a short jumper off a lane cut and then recorded an and-one as Kingsford built a 31-16 lead with just under four minutes left in the third period.

Coach Moore complimented her team on its strong, confident play after seeing her players suffer from some hesitancy in their last game, a 46-39 setback at Marquette on Jan. 3.

“We have a young team, and we tend to play a little scared at times,” the first-year varsity coach said. “We get in our heads a little bit, we don’t have full confidence in what our abilities are.

“We had a little intimidation factor against Marquette and we were back on our heels. But I was very happy with our performance tonight. I really feel that it was a total team effort and I think that some of the things that we didn’t do so great against Marquette got rectified tonight.”

Down 15, the Wykons scored five straight points on a 3-pointer by Katelyn Smith and two free throws from Lacey Shamion. But Kingsford senior Taylor Olsen hit a triple shortly after and the Wykons never got closer than 11 the rest of the game.

“I think the Kingsford kids were mentally ready to play and the West Iron kids weren’t,” Coach Shamion said. “I think the mental side of basketball, in high school sports (in general), is very important. I try to preach it to my kids all the time.

“You could tell that during the first quarter that we weren’t ready to play.”

Smith topped WIC with 11 points, while Bristol Shamion scored eight and Lacey Shamion added seven.

Przeslakowski was Kingsford’s other double-digit scorer, finishing with 10.

The Flivvers will host Escanaba (3-4) in a Great Northern Conference game on Thursday. West Iron was scheduled to play Negaunee (9-0) Tuesday in Iron River.

SCORING

KINGSFORD – Kowalski 7 5-7 22, Moore 2 1-2 5, Przeslakowski 4 1-2 10, Olson 1 0-0 2, Sundquist 1 1-2 3, Olsen 1 0-0 3, Kriegl 1 0-0 2, Normand 1 0-0 2. Totals 18 8-13 49. 3-pointers: 5 (Kowalski 3, Przeslakowski, Olsen).

WEST IRON – Storti 1 3-7 5, Johnson 0 1-2 1, L. Shamion 1 5-8 7, B. Shamion 3 2-2 8, Smith 4 0-0 11, De Sousa 1 2-2 4. Totals 10 13-21 36.

PURPLE HORNETS 83, NORDICS 66

FELCH TOWNSHIP — It was a high-scoring affair on Monday in Felch Township as the North Dickinson girls varsity basketball team faced off with L’Anse.

The Nordics (4-3, 1-1) kept pace with the Purple Hornets (6-1, 1-1) for much of the game, but they couldn’t get over the top as L’Anse took home the 83-66 non-conference win.

Raina Ledzian opened the first quarter on a roll for North Dickinson. She connected on two 3-pointers in the frame and scored eight points.

Ava Oman pitched in four points and the Nordics racked up 17 in the frame.

However, the Purple Hornets scored 20 points in the quarter.

L’Anse scored 20 points in the second and third quarter while North Dickinson managed 30 points over that span.

Oman found a rhythm in the fourth, scoring six points in the frame. Ledzian added five points and Lauren Jungwirth made a 3-pointer, but it wasn’t enough to push the Nordics to victory.

Ledzian led North Dickinson with 15 points.

The Nordics also received contributions from Jessica Harwath (4 points), Hailee Siegler (5 points), Alyson Steinbrecher (13 points), Oman (10 points), Jungwirth (11 points) and Aspen Anderson (8 points).

North Dickinson returns to play at home on Friday against Mid Peninsula.

Daily News sports editor Sean Chase contributed to this report.