CRYSTAL FALLS – Aubrey Waara-Shamion scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Forest Park past North Dickinson 41-35 in a Skyline Central Conference battle Tuesday at Eddie Chambers Gymnasium.

Waara sank six field goals, including a 3-pointer, and hit 4 of her 6 free throws to spark the Lady Trojans (6-3) to their third consecutive victory.

“We played good defense for four quarters,” said FP coach Kim Bjork, who noted Waara-Shamion’s fine performance. “Our rebounding was better tonight.”

The Lady Trojans finished with 22 rebounds while the Nordics recorded 20.

North Dickinson (4-4) led 7-6 after the first quarter before Forest Park moved ahead 18-17 at halftime. The teams both scored eight points in the third quarter before the Lady Trojans outscored the Nordics 15-10 down the stretch.

“Overall, a pretty good game,” ND coach Kirk Mattson said. “Forest Park made a few more plays in the fourth quarter and that was the difference.”

Mattson added that he thought his team seemed a half-step behind, especially in the second half.

“I think the physical game we had with Bark River the night before caught up with us, and we kind of ran out of gas,” he said. “However, I’m not taking anything away from Forest Park. I thought they played a real solid game tonight.”

Aly Steinbrecher paced ND with 14 points while Aunika Lindholm added eight. Aspen Anderson, who Mattson credit for her ability to “settle our team down,” added six.

For Forest Park, Elsie Williams and Tessa Bartoszek finished with nine points each.

The Lady Trojans are scheduled to host North Central (2-5) Friday, while the Nordics will face UPSSA Division 4 fourth-ranked Norway (5-1, heading into Wednesday’s game against Rapid River) at Carl F. Lemin Gymnasium the same night.

NORTH DICKINSON – Oman 1 0-0 2, Lindholm 3 1-2 8, Ledzian 1 0-0 2, Steinbrecher 5 2-3 14, Roberts 1 1-2 3, Anderson 2 2-4 6. Totals: 13 6-11 35. 3-point field goals: 3 (Steinbrecher 2, Lindholm).

FOREST PARK – A. Williams 1 0-0 3, E. Williams 2 4-4 9, Waara-Shamion 6 4-6 17, Price 1 1-4 3, Bartoszek 4 0-0 9. Totals: 14 9-14 41. 3-point field goals: 4 (A. Williams, E. Williams, Waara-Shamion, Bartoszek).

L’Anse 70

West Iron 41

IRON RIVER – With 3½ minutes left in the first quarter Tuesday against visiting L’Anse, the West Iron County Wykons held a 7-3 lead. Then the avalanche came.

The Purple Hornets, a young, talented and aggressive squad, ran off the next 32 points and overwhelmed WIC in a non-conference matchup at Charles Greenlund Gymnasium.

Sophomore Breyelle Bowers scored 20 points, sophomore Kwynn Voskuhl added 17 and freshman Dalanna Connor recorded 14 for L’Anse, which sank 11 3-pointers.

During the L’Anse explosion, the Wykons repeatedly turned the ball over against the Purple Hornets variety of presses and got so sped up they couldn’t function.

“L’Anse is quick and they provide pressure all over the court, but my gosh, we’re varsity basketball team,” said WIC coach Eric Shamion, whose team went nearly 11 minutes in the first half without scoring. “We have to be able to execute, we have to be able to make basic passes, and we had so many turnovers. And really bad turnovers.”

From the time that Voskuhl sank a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left in the first quarter and a driving layup off a turnover seconds later, the Purple Hornets had the Wykons in a haze.

West Iron found itself in a 34-12 hole at halftime and the deficit deepened into a 55-25 crater after three quarters.

In addition to its ball-handling and decision-making issues, West Iron connected on just 11 of its 27 free throws (41 percent) and sank only 14 field goals in the game, five of which came in the fourth quarter when L’Anse coach Joshua Eagle had pulled off his team’s harassing pressure.

Lily De Sousa topped WIC (2-5) with 15 points, while sophomore Grace Smith notched seven points and Bristol Shamion and Laurel Johnson recorded six each.

After his team’s fourth consecutive loss, Coach Shamion admitted he is baffled by his team’s recent woes.

“We’ve got to learn to compete better, and we’ve got to be mentally prepared to play basketball,and these kids have really struggled with it and I don’t know why,” he began. “We’ve watched them play good basketball in December and we haven’t been able to find good basketball here in January yet.

“But we have better athletes than what we showed tonight. I don’t know (yet) how to pull it out of them. (Maybe) they have to pull it out of themselves. But we’ve got to come together as a team and really figure out what we’re doing and how we prepare.”

The Wykons are scheduled to host UPSSA Division 1-3 third-ranked Houghton tonight to close out their three-game week.

L’ANSE – Voskuhl 6 3-4 17, Connor 5 0-0 14, Bowers 8 0-0 20, Pierre 1 0-0 2, Allen 3 0-0 6, Cichosz 2 0-0 5, Dantes 2 2-6 6. Totals: 27 5-10 70. 3-point field goals: 11 (Connor 4, Bowers 4, Voskuhl 2, Cichosz).

WEST IRON COUNTY – B. Shamion 2 2-7 6, De Sousa 5 3-4 15, Alexa 0 1-6 1, Sucholl 1 0-0 2, Smith 2 3-3 7, L. Shamion 1 2-5 4, Johnson 3 0-2 6. Totals: 14 11-27 41. 3-point field goals: 2 (De Sousa 2).

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Compiled by Daily News sports correspondent Jerry DeRoche.