Gladstone junior Lillie Johnson (21) leaps above defenders Addisyn Kriegl (11) and Alyvia Kowalski (13) during a Great Northern Conference game on Dec. 10, 2024 in Flivver Gym at Kingsford High School. (Courtesy photo/Terry Raiche)

KINGSFORD — It was raining 3-pointers in Kingsford on Tuesday as the Flivvers girls varsity basketball team faced Gladstone in a Great Northern Conference clash at Flivver Gym.

However, the Braves offense lit things up from beyond the arc, and Kingsford (1-1, 0-1) lost its first game of the season, 57-15, to Gladstone (3-0, 1-0).

“I expected Gladstone to be a tough opponent,” Flivvers head coach Ginger Moore said. “They’ve been building and Lillie adds a lot and she makes the players around her better. So we knew that was on the table and, unfortunately, we really don’t have anybody that matches up with her well.

“Credit to Gladstone, they hit a lot of outside shots.”

The Braves connected on 10 3-point shots in the contest. But, it was their defensive pressure that carried them over the top. In the fourth quarter, they held Kingsford scoreless.

“Our defense was excellent,” Braves head coach Andy Cretens said. “We were able to watch a little bit of film from their first game against Bark River and saw what they wanted to do. Made a decision to force everything to the sideline and not let them reverse the ball. … It worked really

well for us. The girls executed the gameplan perfectly.”

Senior Anna Bortolini led the charge for Kingsford in the first quarter. She opened the scoring with a lay up. Then sent a pass through multiple Gladstone defenders directly to Alyvia Kowalski for another layup and the Flivvers held a 4-0 advantage.

With Kingsford swarming Lillie Johnson, the Braves turned to Addy Blowers. She buried a left corner 3-pointer, to cut the lead to one.

“They came out in a 2-3 (zone) so we had to adjust right away, to something we haven’t worked on or talked about, yet, this year,” Cretens said. “But we have enough returning girls, we have a lot of varsity experience with these girls. So we were able to get right into our offense, make some shots and pull them out of that 2-3 zone and we were able to run our normal offense from there.”

Kowalski found Cassie Olson cutting to the basket, on the next possession, and the lead was three back up to three in favor of Kingsford.

But, that’s when things began to fall apart for the Flivvers as Gladstone took control of the rebounding battle.

“You can’t give a team like Gladstone multiple shots,” coach Moore said. “I was happy with our first six minutes of play. We executed what we intended to do. But then Lillie went on a run and we have a young team. The wheels started to fall off a bit and it’s hard to shift that.”

Over the next four minutes, Blowers connected on two more 3-pointers, Eva Pankonien added two more as the lead ballooned to 14-points. Johnson also pitched in seven first-quarter points and the Braves took a 22-8 lead into the second.

“Addy Blowers, she hit four threes in the first half,” Cretens said. “Obviously, Lillie draws a lot of attention and the rest of our girls know you’re going to get a lot of open shots from the outside. We need you to knock down some shots and she did that for us. Those shots just get us going. If she misses a couple of those, who knows what happens after that. She stepped up big for us.”

Kingsford scored three points in the second quarter and things quickly spiraled out of control as Johnson found her footing. She scored 10 in the frame and the lead grew to 27 points at halftime.

With things under control, Cretens decided to sit Johnson down midway through the third quarter. While it was a good chance to get some younger players experience, it also gave the Braves a chance to rest Johnson.

“It’s two-fold,” Cretens said. “We wanted to give (Lillie Johnson) some rest. She’s been fighting a cold all season, so we were able to get her some rest. But, also, we’ve got two freshmen who we need to get more experience and it was a great opportunity for that.”

Gladstone scored 17 points in the second half while holding Kingsford to five points in the same span and locked up the 57-15 GNC win.

Once the dust settled on the game, coach Moore had one focus – improving.

“I want my team to always play with passion,” coach Moore said. “So, right now, I said, ‘This game is over. How do we respond to this and what do we do tomorrow to get back to work?’ We’re not able to read it and react right now. So we get beat on textbook things, which over the course of the year we have to shore up those things.”

Although the score doesn’t immediately point to areas of improvement for the Braves, Cretens wants to see his team improve its decision making as the season progresses.

“We talk about decision making the most,” Cretens said. “In the second quarter, we had eight turnovers. I think we had 15 total and we had eight in the second quarter. We’ve just got to make better decisions, especially when we’ve got them on the ropes. We don’t want to let them back into the game because we’re turning the ball over.”

Johnson led all scorers in the contest with 23 points.

Gladstone also received contributions from Blowers (16 points), Mayce Hanson (2 points), Pankonien (9 points), Adele Ostlund (4 points) and Tiahna Reynolds (3 points).

Kowalski (5 points), Jazzlynne Shaughnessy (2 points), Bortolini (4 points) and Olson (4 points) all contributed to the Flivvers’ offense.

The Braves are back in action today at home against Iron Mountain. Kingsford is off until Monday when it welcomes the Mountaineers to Flivver Gym.