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Redwood Valley nips Fairmont in BSC tilt

FAIRMONT — Fairmont and Redwood Valley played frenetic offensive styles with NBAesque defensive efforts during the pair of Cardinals’ Big South Conference basketball clash on Tuesday night in Fairmont.

Point guard Nate Kallenbach produced 12 of his 15 points, including three consecutive 3-pointers, during the second half to serve as the catalyst behind Fairmont’s cardiac comeback bid at Cardinal Gym.

Mitch Irlbeck and James Pendleton, however, combined for 21 of Redwood Valley’s 32 second-half points to fend off Fairmont in the seesaw shootout, 74-72.

“They’re a very quick team and you’d better be on your game defensively if you want to have a chance to win, and we didn’t do that tonight,” said Fairmont head coach Jared Thompson, whose lineup had won 9 of its last 10 games prior to Tuesday night’s tipoff.

Brady Allen, who finished with a team-best 16 points, drained back-to-back 3-pointers to open the game as Fairmont built an 8-2 lead off the opening tip.

Redwood Valley, however, utilized the 3-point arc to eventually grab an 18-16 lead with 10:21 remaining in the first half. Pendleton, who finished with 19 points to complement a co-game-best six assists, and Cole Woodford nailed back-to-back 3s from the right wing off assists from Logan Josephson to claim a two-point lead.

Wyatt Quiring’s two free throws off the Fairmont bench and Sam Schwieger’s right-corner trey off one of Kallenbach’s co-game-high six assists later inched the hometown lineup within 22-21 before Redwood Valley reserve guard Deo Charles scorched the Cardinal Gym nylon nets from long distance to trigger a pivotal 15-0 surge.

Dalton Siegfried, who delivered nine points off the visitors’ bench, converted a traditional 3-point play off one of Woodford’s three assists before Charles banked in a layup off Kyle Huhnerkoch’s steal-turned-assist.

Schwieger, who tallied 15 points for Fairmont, tossed in a baseline leaner before Charles bookended a pair of 3s around Huhnerkoch’s cutter in traffic to grab a 37-23 lead.

Quiring and Kallenbach answered the challenge for Fairmont as Quiring tallied five of his seven bench points, while Kallenbach delivered a pair of assists to Quiring and converted his own traditional 3-point play to pull the home team within 42-35 at intermission.

Down 56-50 midway through the second half on the heels of Irlbeck’s low-post conversion of a Pendleton assist, Walker Tordsen and Kallenbach worked cohesively to trigger Fairmont’s ensuing 10-2 run.

Tordsen, who netted 11 points, swooshed a pair of jumpers in the paint before Tyler Johnson and Tordsen spotted Kallenbach squared up behind the arc for back-to-back 3s, respectively, to swing a 60-58 lead to Fairmont with 7:51 remaining in regulation.

Redwood Valley head coach Aaron Lindahl called timeout, and Irlbeck responded with a traditional 3-point play out of the short recess. Lindahl produced seven of his game-best 20 points during a 3-minute span to extend the visitors’ lead to 68-63 with 5 minutes to go.

Kallenbach then set up Schwieger for a runner and baseline drive to trim Fairmont’s gap to three, but Woodford snapped the nets on a clutch 3 from the top of the key to double the lead to 73-67 with 1:40 remaining.

Tordsen hit a putback basket before Irlbeck sank the front end of a one-and-one situation to leave Redwood Valley with a 74-69 lead with 40 ticks remaining.

Derek Missling garnered one of his team-best seven boards at the offensive end and fired to Tordsen for the 15-foot jumper and ‘and-1.’ Tordsen converted the traditional 3-point play to whittle the home team’s deficit to 74-72 with 18 seconds remaining.

Fairmont cleared the front end of a missed one-and-one, but couldn’t get the potential game-winning 3 to fall just before the buzzer.

“It took a lot of energy to keep fighting back throughout the game, and we could never quite gain the lead and maintain it,” said Thompson. “I thought we were fortunate to get a chance to win the game at the very end.”

Fairmont (15-8) plays host to Tri-City United on Monday night before hitting the road to Jackson County Central next Tuesday night for a Big South Conference cross-over clash.

Redwood Valley (13-12) plays host to St. James Area at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night in a conference cross-over game in Redwood Falls.

R. Valley 42-32–74

Fairmont 35-37–72

FAIRMONT (72)

Brady Allen 5-8 3-4 16, Tyler Johnson 1-3 0-0 2, Walker Tordsen 5-9 1-1 11, Sam Schwieger 7-16 0-1 15, Nate Kallenbach 5-9 2-2 15, Derek Missling 2-9 0-0 4, Wyatt Quiring 2-4 3-3 7, Lucas Denney 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 28-60 9-11 72.

REDWOOD VALLEY (74)

Caden Hanna 2-3 0-0 4, Mitch Irlbeck 9-14 2-5 20, Logan Josephson 1-4 1-3 3, Cole Woodford 3-10 1-2 9, James Pendleton 8-15 1-1 19, Kyle Huhnerkoch 1-2 0-0 2, Deo Charles 3-3 0-0 8, Dalton Siegfried 4-5 1-3 9. Totals 31-56 6-14 74.

3-pointers: Fairmont 7-21 (Kallenbach 3-5, Allen 3-7, Schwieger 1-6, Johnson 0-1, Tordsen 0-1, Quiring 0-1); Redwood Valley 6-14 (Charles 2-2, Pendleton 2-5, Woodford 2-4, Hanna 0-1, Josephson 0-1, Siegfried 0-1). Fouled out: None. Rebounds: Redwood Valley 33 (Josephson 11, Woodford 10); Fairmont 29 (Missling 7). Assists: Redwood Valley 18 (Pendleton 6, Josephson 5); Fairmont 14 (Kallenbach 6). Steals: Fairmont 4; Redwood Valley 4.

Hayden Berhow scored 10 points to help guide Fairmont to a 44-30 victory over Redwood Valley during B-squad action Tuesday night in Fairmont.

Dustin Schultz and Lucas Denney contributed nine points apiece to Fairmont’s winning ways at Cardinal Gym.

Dan Betts produced 18 points to power Fairmont to a 53-34 triumph over Redwood Valley during C-squad play Tuesday night in Fairmont.

Caleb Snelson netted eight points for the hometown Cardinals, while Joey Flohrs and Campbell Krusemark chipped in six points each.

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