Kingsford senior hoopster Alaina Kowalski (13) drives to the basket past a Bark River-Harris defender for a basket on Monday in Flivver Gym. (Terry Raiche photo)

KINGSFORD — For the first quarter and a half of Monday’s girls varsity basketball season opener, host Kingsford and Bark River-Harris basically played evenly with the visiting Broncos holding a one-point lead.

After Flivvers junior Anna Bortolini drove to the hoop to pull Kingsford within 15-14, Broncos coach Matt Richer called a timeout.

And from there, Bark River-Harris (1-0) used its 2-3 zone to stop Kingsford’s dribble penetration, dominated the offensive glass and blew away the Flivvers (0-1) for a 64-33 road win.

The Broncos scored the final 14 points of the first half to go into the break with a 29-14 lead and then continued to surge ahead with a 12-2 burst to start the third quarter. That provided Bark River-Harris with an overwhelming 41-9 stranglehold on the game with 3:30 left in the period.

For Kingsford coach Jon Lorenzoni, the main troubles for his team were its struggle to score against the BR-H zone and its inability to rebound defensively.

“We lost our edge, I thought,” Lorenzoni said about the Broncos’ big run in the second and third quarters. “And I think when we started questioning what we were doing offensively, I think we lost our edge defensively, so it kind of worked both ways there and it spiraled really big.”

With Bark River-Harris leading 11-9 in the waning seconds of the first quarter, senior Nina Bower sank a runner from just inside halfcourt at the buzzer to increase her team’s lead to five.

As the game wore on, the shot seemed symbolic as to what was going to take place on the night.

The Flivvers’ fall-off did not begin immediately after Bower’s 3-pointer as junior Addisyn Kriegl banked in a 3-pointer and Bortolini scored off a drive.

But Bower scored after an offensive rebound and senior Lauren Zawada recorded six straight points to push the Broncos to a 21-14 lead.

It was at this point that the Flivvers seemed unable to finish off their defensive efforts with a rebound.

“I think we probably gave up 30 points on offensive rebounds,” Lorenzoni said. “That’s the biggest thing right now for me is I’m not going to sit here and watch us get outrebounded that (badly) all year long. It’s a starting point, but we just have to try to get back to the drawing board and get better at it.”

The Broncos’ efforts on the backboard glass sparked their offense while their zone defense took away Kingsford’s driving lanes to the basket and the Flivvers offense dried up.

From the 4:09 mark of the second quarter until the 6:13 mark of the fourth quarter, the Flivvers scored just four points and were outscored by 31.

By then, Lorenzoni had begun to substitute freely. Freshman guard Alyvia Kowalski showed some of her promise with eight points down the stretch.

Overall, Bortolini topped the Flivvers with nine, while senior Alaina Kowalski scored five, Kriegl added four, Abby Przeslakowski chipped in with three and Mia Counter and Paige Briseno contributed a bucket each.

“I thought the player who played the best for us was Anna Bortolini,” Lorenzoni said. “I thought she played ultra aggressive, especially in the first quarter.”

Zawada and McKenzie Hoffmeyer led BR-H with 19 points each, while Bower added 12.

Neither team took care of the ball well. The Broncos committed 24 turnovers on the night and the Flivvers recorded 28 miscues.

Bark River-Harris will face North Dickinson in Felch Township on Friday, while the Flivvers travel to Forest Park on the same night.

“It’s not time to panic or anything yet,” Lorenzoni said. “Don’t get me wrong, it was not a good night and I’m not happy with the way we played at all.

“But it’s a long season and I know these kids and I know that they’re going to continue to work hard.”

WILDCATS 33, BADGERS 25

LENA, Wis. — The Niagara girls varsity basketball team went into Lena looking to topple the undefeated Wildcats in a Marinette & Oconto Conference matchup on Monday.

However, the Badgers (1-3, 1-1) couldn’t survive a slow start and Lena (4-0, 1-0) rolled to a 33-25 win.

“Great effort against an undefeated team,” Niagara coach Karl Lamoreaux said. “Our defense against their transition offense was excellent. We need to match our defense with our offense now.”

Mallory Sanicki led the Badgers with 11 points.

Niagara also received contributions from Elesia Sweig (2 points), Bristol Sanicki (9 points) and Rachael Walker (3 points).

The Badgers are back in action at home on Thursday when they face off with conference foe Coleman at 7:15 p.m.

Niagara picked up its lone win of the season last week when it edged out Gillett 39-34.

— Daily News sports editor Sean Chase also contributed to this report.