Iron Mountain senior Gerilis Sampoll Torres (22) drives to the basket for a layup on Thursday in Mountaineer Gym. (Terry Raiche photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — Many times when two prep basketball teams face each other twice during the season the results are similar. But then there are those instances when the two matchups play out differently.

The latter was the case Thursday night when the Iron Mountain girls basketball team hosted Kingsford. After dropping the first encounter against their rivals by 17 points in mid-December, the Mountaineers responded in the rematch and notched a 50-47 triumph at Mountaineer Gym.

The heroes were several for Iron Mountain. Senior Gerilis Sampoll Torres buried a cold-blooded 3-pointer with 3:44 left to give her team a 43-41 lead, a lead it never relinquished.

Sophomore Alysia Wood, who didn’t sink a shot from the field in the game, swished two free throws with 13.1 ticks left to keep her team up three.

Freshman Monroe Vedin added another free throw with 6.7 remaining to increase the IM lead back to three after a Flivver free throw.

And then there was the usual hero, senior Macy Linsenbigler, who once again proved to be a relentless force near the hoop and finished with a game-high 23 points to lead her team to its sixth win of the campaign.

“Just really happy,” IM coach Chad Lindeman said. “We’ve been struggling on offense this year, so it was good to see us come out and be able to score 50 points against a really good scrappy hard-fighting team like Kingsford.”

After trailing much of the game, the Flivvers (8-9) scored five of the first seven points of the fourth quarter to take a 40-37 with just under six minutes to play.

Aubrie Moore sank a 3-pointer and Anna Bortolini recorded a put-back to lift Kingsford to an advantageous position.

But with the Flivvers holding a 41-40 edge, Sampoll Torres shot the first dagger with her deep triple from the top to give the Mountaineers a two-point lead with under four minutes to play.

“That was Gerilis’ best high school basketball game since I’ve started coaching here,” Lindemann said. “She came through in a big way tonight and she took care of the ball.”

Though so much happened during the intriguing back-and-forth affair, the game boiled down to free throw shooting, especially down the stretch.

The Mountaineers (6-13) sank 7 of 10 shots from the line in the last two minutes, while the Flivvers made just 3 of 10.

On the night, Iron Mountain finished 19 of 32 (59%) and the Flivvers hit only 13 of 29 (45%).

“First off, hats off to Coach Lindeman and the Mountaineer girls.” Flivver assistant coach Chris Moore said afterwards. “They came to play tonight and that was wonderful to see.

“I think in crunch time we missed six straight free throws and two right-handed layups. That hurts. Our attitudes are there, our sportsmanship is there, just didn’t have enough to get it over the line.”

After Kingsford scored the first three points of the game on a driving layup in transition by Aubrie Moore and a free throw by Bortolini, the Mountaineers answered with seven straight points.

Sampoll Torres kickstarted her team with a triple before Ava Marttila hit a jumper from the short corner. Sampoll Torres followed with a jumper to give IM a four-point edge.

The Mountaineers broke a 12-all tie midway through the second period with seven straight points to take what turned out to be the largest lead of the game for either team. Linsenbigler recorded six of those points to go with a free throw from Bella Pickett.

Once again, Linsenbigler confounded another opponent, Coach Moore acknowledged.

“Super aggressive, attacks the bucket,” he said. “Got us in a lot of foul trouble. She’s an excellent player and she had a nice game.”

One of those foul-plagued Flivvers was junior center Cassie Olson, who fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Bortolini eventually fouled out late in the game.

Pickett and Linsenbigler also were disqualified by fouls in a physical game that featured 61 free-throw attempts.

The Flivvers put together their best offensive stretch of the game in the third quarter.

After scoring just 16 points in the first 16 minutes, Kingsford recorded 19 points in the third quarter, led by Sundquist’s eight.

Sundquist dominated the offensive glass in the second half for her team.

“Kailey Sundquist was outstanding, probably the best game I’ve coached her,” Moore said. “In a game where we couldn’t make shots, she seemed to be a vacuum cleaner (on the backboards), gobbling things up.”

The game was level at 35-all heading into the fourth quarter and balanced on a razor’s edge as time ticked away. But the Mountaineers made the winning plays in the final 30 seconds to get their revenge on the Flivvers in 2024-25.

For Chris Moore, the game came down to one simple idea.

“It’s just a sport that comes down to making shots. I can’t do it from the sideline and Coach Lindeman can’t do it for his gals.

“We just did our stats. We’re 16 percent from (the 3-point line) this season and sub-50 percent on free throws. The hearts are there, the effort is there, it’s just the skill level is just not there (yet).”

On the other side, the Mountaineers and their coach celebrated their gutty effort and victory.

“I’m just happy with the outcome,” Lindeman said. “They played hard and they fought and fought and fought.”

Next up for the Mountaineers is a home game against West Pac Conference opponent Gwinn (3-15) on Tuesday, Feb. 18. Also that night, the Flivvers travel to Gladstone to take on the UPSSA Division 1-3 second-ranked Braves (13-1) in a Great Northern Conference contest.

SCORING

KINGSFORD – Moore 4 2-4 12, Bortolini 4 5-8 13, Przeslakowski 3 1-4 7, Olson 0 0-2 0, Sundquist 3 5-11 11, Kowalski 2 0-0 4. Totals: 16 13-29 47. Three-pointers: 2 (Moore 2). Turnovers: 13.

IRON MOUNTAIN – Sampoll Torres 4 3-6 14, Marttila 1 2-2 4, Linsenbigler 9 5-8 23, Pickett 0 4-8 4. Wood 0 4-6 4, Vedin 0 1-2 1. Totals: 14 19-32 50. Three-pointers: 3 (Sampoll Torres 3). Turnovers: 13.