IRON RIVER – In an intense rivalry game, sometimes the beauty of the game doesn’t lie in the actual play but in the battle.

That was the case Thursday night at Charles Greenlund Gymnasium where the West Iron County Wykons edged the Forest Park Lady Trojans 41-38 in an intense contest that brought out the fight in both teams.

“It’s going to be all-out by both teams,” FP coach Kim Bjork said. “Nobody wants to lose this game, but it was a hard-fought game by both teams and we just didn’t come out on top.

“We put ourselves in a good opportunity to win, we just didn’t score well.”

The Wykons (5-10) snapped a four-game losing streak with the victory and the post-game reaction of joy and relief was palpable from both WIC players and their coach Eric Shamion.

“What an effort by all the kids,” Shamion said. “We put a lot of effort into this game, and I think Forest Park does, too. I’m just happy for the kids. They put in effort at practice and it’s a long season and this was an important game to them and the crowd was in it and it just feels really good to come out on the winning end.”

Making things more challenging for West Iron than just playing against a 10-win Forest Park team was the loss of senior Lacey Shamion about three minutes into the game with an ankle injury. (She missed the remainder of the game and her return to the lineup is unknown at this point.)

The injury shifted the onus of initiating the offense and scoring to Shamion’s younger sister Bristol and the sophomore responded with her best game to date.

She scored 20 points, dished out several assists and hounded FP’s top scorer, Elsie Williams, into just an eight-point night.

“Bristol had 20 points, but I thought she played really good on defense,” her coach and father said. “Elsie is a great player (but) I think at times Bristol’s length bothered her.”

Which opened the door for Elsie’s sister Audrey, who proved difficult to guard for West Iron. The diminutive sophomore continually beat West Iron defenders off the dribble and finished with 20 points herself.

Williams helped bring the Lady Trojans (10-6) back from a six-point deficit third-quarter deficit with a driving bucket, a baseline jumper and a pair of free throws.

Midway through the fourth quarter, junior Vienna Price recorded two driving hoops that pulled FP within one before an Aubrey Williams’ free throw tied the score at 32-all with 2:13 left in regulation.

“All the girls on the floor can score,” Bjork said of her players. “It’s just a matter of doing it. I think we sometimes think too much about the action we’re trying to run on the floor instead of just being basketball players.”

With momentum switching to the Lady Trojans, the Wykons were looking for a response, and they got it from Cami Alexa, Laurel Johnson and Grace Smith.

Alexa broke the tie with a bucket on the baseline. She missed her ensuing free throw after a FP foul, but Johnson brought down the rebound and hit a baseline shot to give WIC a 36-32 lead.

After a missed shot from FP, Smith sank a layup off an assist from Bristol Shamion to lift WIC to a six-point lead.

“My kids didn’t flinch,” Coach Shamion said. “And we kept punching and kept scoring and played good on the other end.

“And Laurel Johnson to come out and score eight points in the second half. Those were huge for us.”

Aubrey Williams fired back with a free throw and a triple to slice the Wykons lead down to 38-36 before Johnson hit a layup to put WIC up two scores with 46 seconds remaining.

Shamion split a pair of free throws with 24.3 left to give the Wykons some temporary breathing room at 41-36 but Price knocked down two foul shots seven seconds later to pull the Forest Park back within a 3-pointer of tying.

The Lady Trojans got that chance to send the game into overtime with seconds remaining, but a 3-point shot by Aubrey Williams rimmed out.

Bjork commented on the challenge of keeping players calm during such an intense struggle.

“It is difficult, but it’s hard to calm us sometimes as coaches, too. We’re all excited because we don’t want to lose. That’s the competitive spirit and that’s how it should be.”

FOREST PARK – A. Williams 7 5-10 20, E. Williams 3 0-0 8, Price 2 4-4 8, Bartoszek 0 1-2 1, E. Anderson 0 1-2 1. Totals: 12 11-18 38. 3-point field goals: 3 (E. Williams, A. Williams).

WEST IRON COUNTY – B. Shamion 7 3-4 20, De Sousa 1 1-2 4, Johnon 4 0-0 8, Sucholl 0 1-2 1, Smith 3 0-0 6, Alexa 1 0-3 2. Totals: 16 5-11 41. 3-point field goals: 4 (B. Shamion 3, De Sousa).