Kingsford's Ali Doolittle, right, works against Marquette defender Averie Kelly during their Great Northern Conference high school girls basketball game played Friday at the Fllivvers' gym. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo by Theresa Proudfit)

KINGSFORD — Kingsford came up with 15 steals and saw Marquette commit nearly 30 turnovers, but the Flivvers couldn’t cash in on the other end and fell 47-34 in a Great Northern Conference girls basketball game Friday afternoon to open a varsity hoops doubleheader.

“We struggled to score,” Flivvers head coach Lisa Harry said. “I felt like we had to work so hard for every shot. Even though we created steals, we couldn’t get any easy buckets. Instead, we gave up too many easy buckets.”

Maggie Strehlow and Brooke Kriegl each totaled seven swipes for the Flivvers, who trailed by as many as nine points in the first half before closing with an 8-0 run to make it a two-point game at the break.

But the Flivvers (3-5, 0-2) found it difficult to contain Marquette’s Maria Millado, who led all scorers with 18 points. Kingsford clawed to a 24-24 tie early in the third quarter, but a quick 5-0 response by Marquette capped by a Millado trey doused the comeback bid.

Marquette head coach Ben Smith said he expected some rust from his team after having not played a game since Dec. 17.

“You just don’t have that sharpness,” he said of his team’s 30 turnovers to Kingsford’s 14. “Those are the things that can’t happen if you want to keep leads or expand them.

“You don’t want to keep a team like that hanging around. We have to limit those mistakes.”

Millado scored 10 of her 18 points in the first half and the remaining eight in the third quarter.

“Her first half, her athleticism, really got us going,” Smith said.

And it kept Kingsford from staying close as the second half wore on.

“We executed our game plan,” Harry said. “But No. 12 (Millado) got away from us. She was really fast and we struggled to contain her. In the full court, she took it to us.”

Kriegl scored 12 for Kingsford and had six boards, but hit just once from beyond the arc following her five-triple showing against West Iron County earlier in the week.

Strehlow had five points and nine rebounds. Kate Cook added eight points.

Following Millado’s 3, Kriegl brought Kingsford back within two at 29-27 after canning her lone 3, but Kingsford didn’t crack the scoreboard again for nearly another seven minutes until a runner by Kriegl with 4:37 to play.

Sofia van den Ende followed Kriegl’s bucket with a trey, and Marquette’s lead was in double digits for good.

“We were fighting for everything tonight,” Harry said. “I felt like the girls were playing extremely hard and gave it an outstanding effort.”

Millado, who also totaled nine rebounds, was joined in double figures by Maddie Carter with 11 points and 11 boards. Aspen Michelin had nine points, six steals and six assists.

In JV action, Kingsford topped Marquette 50-44 and won the freshman game 38-34.