CRYSTAL FALLS — Entering Friday night’s battle, the Forest Park Lady Trojans had not defeated rival West Iron in five years. So the last time the Lady Trojans upended the Wykons, several of their current players were 10 years old.

Yes, much has happened, and many players have come and gone since Forest Park beat West Iron 40-34 on Feb. 13, 2020. But none of that matters anymore after the current Lady Trojans knocked off the Wykons 48-41 Friday night at Eddie Chambers Gymnasium.

Junior Elsie Williams poured in a game-high 24 points to lead Forest Park to the memorable victory.

“We have not (defeated West Iron) since I’ve been in high school so this is really exciting for me,” she said. “It was so much fun. The crowd, there were so many people here so you could just feel the energy.”

Williams knocked down a 3-pointer and sank a driving layup to help the Lady Trojans take off on a crucial 10-4 run to break a 33-all tie to start the fourth quarter.

Her freshman sister Audrey added a 3-pointer and junior Lily Sarder sank a putback to give the Lady Trojans a lead they would never relinquish.

“Our girls battled for all four quarters,” FP coach Kim Bjork said. “It was a great team win. Our energy and effort defensively (were) awesome.”

“Elsie gave us a lift offensively and we had others contributing in the scoring column,” Bjork added.

West Iron did respond to FP’s push with layups by Kaitlyn Smith and Lacey Shamion as the Wykons pulled to within 43-41 with 2:22 left.

But the Wykon offense dried up from there and the Lady Trojans put the game away on three free throws by Elsie Williams and one each from Sarder and Kaidince Woollard.

The loss kept West Iron mired in its current losing streak, which has now reached 11 straight.

“I liked our effort but was disappointed in our execution,” WIC coach Eric Shamion said. “Turnovers continue to hurt us. We had too many bad passes against FP’s full-court pressure.

“We had plenty of offensive rebounds, we just couldn’t make the put-back.”

To Shamion’s point, the Wykons outrebounded the Lady Trojans 44-16 but sank just 14 of 65 shots (21 percent) in the game.

Additionally, West Iron committed 19 turnovers to 14 for Forest Park.

West Iron (2-14) started well, scoring the first six points of the contest on a triple by Smith, two free throws by Lacey Shamion and one by Sidney Storti.

After Elsie Williams got her team on the board with a 3-pointer, Hailey Murillo hit a layup off a feed from Lily De Sousa and Lacey Shamion scored off a drive to put the visitors up 10-3.

At that point, the game looked like so many WIC-FP girls basketball games recently, when the Wykons jump on the Lady Trojans early and run away with the game shortly after.

However, that was not to be the case this time. Elsie Williams sparked a 7-1 in the final 1:22 of the opening period to pull FP to within 11-10 heading into the second quarter.

Khali Woollard and Evie Anderson sank layups during that run as well.

“Sometimes we have a hard time getting started in the game, so when we have a fast first quarter, we usually do better,” Elsie Williams said.

Forest Park (8-9) took its first lead of the game when Williams sank her third triple of the first half to put her team up 18-15 with just over two minutes to play before halftime.

The Wykons came back with three free throws by Lacey Shamion and a bucket each from Julia Swenski and Storti to head into halftime with a 22-20 edge.

Neither team held a lead larger than three in the third quarter as the game remained tight until the final minute.

“Every time we play West Iron, it’s always like this,” Elsie Williams said. “It’s always a high-energy, high-intensity game. It was tied up (starting the fourth quarter) and we just said, ‘It’s here, we’ve got to win the fourth quarter.'”

Which the Lady Trojans did, to win their fifth game in their last eight.

“I think (it was) the early in the season jitters,” Williams said of Forest Park’s earlier struggles. “We have a lot of freshmen on our team, so they’re starting to step up to the varsity play a little bit.

“Now, they’re doing a great job and we’re all starting to mesh together a little more.”

Williams sank six of Forest Park nine 3-pointers in the game. She was supported, in part, by Khali Woollard and Lily Sarder who scored six each.

West Iron was led by three players — Lacey Shamion, Bristol Shamion and Storti — all with nine points each.

The Lady Trojans seek to raise their record to the .500 mark when they host Rapid River (3-10) in a Skyline Central Conference matchup on Tuesday.

The Wykons hope to stop their skid when they travel to Bessemer (2-14) for a nonconference game on Tuesday.

SCORING

WEST IRON – Smith 2 0-0 5, L. Shamion 2 5-8 9, Storti 3 3-5 9, Murillo 2 1-2 5, B. Shamion 3 2-4 9, Swenski 1 0-2 2, Alexa 1 0-0 2. Totals: 14 11-21 41. Three-pointers: 2 (Smith, B.Shamion).

FOREST PARK – E. Williams 8 3-4 24, Kh. Woollard 2 1-1 6, E.Anderson 2 0-0 4, H. Anderson 1 0-2 3, Sarder 3 0-2 6, A. Williams 1 1-2 4, Ka. Woollard 1-2 1. Totals: 18 6-13 48. Three-pointers: 9 (E. Williams 6, Kh. Woollard, H. Anderson, A. Williams)