Forest Park sophomore Felix Quevedo (15) breaks away from North Dickinson’s Steven Holmes (15) and Antonio Inglese (10) during the Skyline Central Conference game between the two rivals on Monday at North Dickinson High School. Quevedo finished with six points to help the Trojans head home with a 50-31 victory. (Dennis Mansfield/Daily News photo)

FELCH TOWNSHIP — Between the teams, the Forest Park and North Dickinson boys varsity basketball squads started one senior, two juniors, five sophomores and two freshmen on Tuesday night when the Skyline Central Conference rivals met at North Dickinson High School. As such, the Trojans and the Nordics are both a work in progress.

At this point, Forest Park is ahead of North Dickinson in development and the Trojans showed that in their 50-31 victory at Carl F. Lemin Jr. Gymnasium.

Forest Park junior guard Sam McKissack, who coach Jason Price called “the man on our team” because of his physical strength, led all scorers with 19 points. One of the rookies, forward Kevin Giuilani, added 14 points to give Price a new outside-inside look against the smallish Nordics.

“(Sam) is usually one of the strongest kids on the court for both teams and with Kevin and (freshman forward) Matthew (Showers), there’s definitely a mismatch in there somewhere.”

McKissack hit a couple of quick hoops to give the Trojans (6-8) a 9-2 lead out of the gate. But the Nordics (1-13) fought back with eight straight points to take a 10-9 lead.

Sophomore Antonio Inglese hit two triples and Wyatt Glasheen added another during the spurt.

“The game could have got away from us,” North Dickinson coach Chris Mattson said. “The kids did comeback and we actually made them call the first time out. So (we) were energized.

“I liked the way we played in the first half. Offensively, we did things tonight that I haven’t see much of this season.”

Mattson specifically mentioned using both sides of the court, not over-dribbling and being patient.

With those offensive fundamentals in place, the Nordics trailed just 11-10 after the first period.

Part of North Dickinson’s ability to stay close was the defense of junior Colin LaFave, who stuck with Forest Park sharpshooter Gaven Rintala wherever he went. But with 3:43 left in the first half, LaFave picked up his second foul and headed to the bench.

From that point, the Trojans outscored North Dickinson 11-2 and took a 26-14 lead into the locker room.

McKissack recorded two buckets, Showers and Giuliani each hit one, sophomore Felix Quevedo sank a pair of free throws and Rintala swished one during the run.

“I thought we came out slow but then we battled back,” Price said. “The second quarter, we made some shots. I mean, give credit to North Dickinson, they came out and they played hard. They always play hard, but on their home court they play really hard.

“We just had to slow down a little, be strong and make our layups. And we got to the free throw line and that was kind of nice to calm ourselves down.”

LaFave splashed a triple two minutes into the third quarter to pull his team within 28-17, but Forest Park answered with nine straight — five off the bench by senior post Timmy Bendick and a basket each from Giuliani and McKissack.

With a 37-17 lead, the Trojans had the game in hand.

Jerry DeRoche can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 244, or at jderoche@ironmountaindailynews.com.