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Cardinals coast past Buc hoopsters

BLUE EARTH — The Fairmont Cardinals boys basketball team came out of the start on fire, marking an 18-0 lead over the Blue Earth Area Bucs in the first six and a half minutes.

With three players finishing with 10 or more points, the Cardinals came away with the 69-40 win over the Bucs during Big South Conference action Friday night.

“I think when you play Blue Earth (Area), you don’t save any big speeches for that game because the kids are going to be ready, and it showed,” Cardinals head coach Jared Thompson said. “I thought our first eight minutes of basketball is about as well as we’ve played the entire year.”

Senior center Walker Tordsen led the way for the Cardinals, scoring half of the team’s first 20 points. The Cardinals also benefitted out outside shooting as junior guard Brady Allen, and junior forward Wyatt Quiring knocked down treys during that time.

Junior forward Jared Kennedy got his first varsity start in the game and scored the first two points for the Bucs, who had four of their main players unavailable for the game. Kennedy finished with seven points.

Eighth-grader Austin Thielfoldt also got his first varsity start for the Bucs and finished with two rebounds and two steals. Bucs freshman guard Carter Bell made his presence known with a 3-pointer with less than 10 minutes to go in the opening half.

“We had a lot of guys who were young and didn’t have much experience play some of their first major minutes in a varsity game,” Bucs head coach Colby Swanson said.

But the Cardinals kept plugging away and got up by as many as 26 via one of sophomore center Lucas Denney’s layups with 1:06 to go in the frame.

Kennedy got off one last shot before the half, but the Cardinals still maintained a comfortable lead, 43-19.

“We didn’t finish the half great, but the start of each half was good, which is huge,” Thompson said. “The first five minutes of each half are always really important to set the tone, and I thought we played the beginnings of each half really well.”

In the first five minutes of the second half, junior guards Nate Kallenbach and Sam Schwieger hit two big 3s for a 49-21 advantage.

“What it (lead) did was it let us experiment with some different lineups. We didn’t have anybody in foul trouble, but there will be games when you do, so it’s good to change the lineups there, give some guys a little bit of a longer run that usually get a short run,” Thompson said.

Sophomore forward Dustin Schultz, for one, was able to see more playing minutes and finished with three rebounds.

“He’s been playing so well on the B-squad, it was nice to get him out there and give him some confidence on the varsity level,” Thompson said.

The Cardinals went 24-for-49 from the field, which included 7-for-18 from behind the arc. Tordsen marked a game-high 17 points with eight rebounds and two blocks, Schwieger notched 14 points and Kallenbach scored 10 points to complement six rebounds in the contest.

“The fact that we had balanced scoring was huge. … It’s harder to defend teams that have multiple guys that can score,” Thompson said.

Sanders and Grant Strukel each scored six points for the Bucs. Vaske chipped in five points and six rebounds.

Fairmont (8-6) plays host to Pipestone Area at 2 p.m. today at Cardinal Gym.

Blue Earth Area (3-9) hosts Martin County West at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night.

BEA           19-21–40

FMT          43-26–69

FAIRMONT (69)

Walker Tordsen 7-12 2-5 17, Sam Schwieger 6-20 0-0 14, Nate Kallenbach 3-5 2-2 10, Brady Allen 2-4 4-4 9, Derek Missling 2-2 4-8 8, Wyatt Quiring 1-5 0-1 3, Lucas Denney 1-3 0-0 2, Tyler Johnson 1-3 0-0, Christian Burmeister 1-2 0-0 2, Giovanni Varrientos 0-1 2-4 2, Dustin Schultz 0-2 0-0 0, Darrin Thingstad 0-1 0-0 0, Hayden Berhow 0-0 0-0 0, Carter Klanderud 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-50 14-24 69.

BLUE EARTH AREA (40)

Jared Kennedy 3-3 0-0 7, Caelan Sanders 3-8 0-0 6, Grant Strukel 2-5 0-2 6, Jacob Vaske 1-7 3-4 5,  Seth Becker 2-2 0-0 5, Collin Bell 1-7 2-3 4, Carter Bell 1-1 0-0 3, Austin Thielfoldt 1-7 0-0 2, Bobby Lindsey 1-5 0-0 2, Chris Jenkins 0-0 0-0 0, Mason Hehr 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-45 5-19 40.

3-pointers: Fairmont 7-19 (Kallenbach 2-2, Schwieger 2-4, Tordsen 1-2, Allen 1-3, Quiring 1-4, Denney 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Burmeister 0-1, Thingstad 0-1). Blue Earth Area 5-19 (Strukel 2-4, Bell 1-1, Becker 1-1, Kennedy 1-1, Vaske 0-1, Bell 0-2, Lindsey 0-3, Thielfoldt 0-3, Sanders 0-3). Fouled out: None. Rebounds: Fairmont 39 (Tordsen 8, Missling, Kallenbach and Allen 6 each); Blue Earth Area 19 (Vaske 6). Assists: Fairmont 10 (Tordsen 3); Blue Earth Area 4. Steals: BEA 6; FHS 5.

Mankato Loyola 55, Martin County West 38 — Zan Raverty connected on 10 of 12 free throws en route to a game-high 17 points to propel the Crusaders to a 17-point Valley Conference victory over the Mavericks on Friday night in Sherburn.

Sheldon Price added 10 points for Loyola, which sank 16 of 24 free throws and 18 of 38 field goals, including 3 of 11 from 3-point range.

Josh Bjerken collected 12 points and distributed three assists to top the Mavericks’ effort, while Wyatt Geistfeld contributed 11 points.

Cole Owens pulled down six rebounds for MCW, which made 9 of 17 free throws and 13 of 43 field goals, including 3 of 18 behind the arc.

Martin County West (3-11) travels to Blue Earth Area on Tuesday night.

Loyola       27-28–55

MCW         23-15–38

Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton 61, Truman/Martin Luther/ GHEC 36 — Josh Janike and Sam Eustice each tallied a dozen points to power the Bulldogs to a 25-point Valley Conference victory over the Jaguars on Friday in Granada.

Janike grabbed five rebounds for JWP, which made 9 of 15 charity tosses to go with 21 of 53 field-goal shooting, including 8 of 23 from 3-point range.

Zayne Engel neared double-double territory by generating game-highs of 15 points and eight rebounds for the Jaguars.

Mason Maloney tallied six points and garnered eight rebounds for TMLGHEC, which hit 6 of 13 free throws and 14 of 44 field goals, including 2 of 15 from 3-point distance.

The Jaguars (7-8, 3-4 Valley) travel to Sleepy Eye Public on Monday night.

JWP               27-34–61

TMLG           16-20–36

West Hancock 60, North Union 48 — The Eagles posted a 12-point Top of Iowa Conference win over the Warriors on Friday night in Armstrong.

Parker Oleson produced 10 points and six rebounds to help pace North Union, while Riley Bauer collected nine points and seven boards.

Elliott Hagebock supplied nine points, Nathan Eaton netted seven points, while Trent Pedersen chipped in five points and eight rebounds.

The Warriors made 17 of 64 field goals, including 7 of 30 behind the 3-point line, and 7 of 13 free throws on the game.

North Union (6-7) travels to Belmond-Klemme on Tuesday night.

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