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Cardinals sink 3s, muzzle Huskies

FAIRMONT — Fairmont’s 6-foot-7 junior center Wyatt Frank and his sharpshooting Cardinal basketball teammates made a strong bid Friday night for a top-four spot in Monday’s Section 3AA, South Sub-Section seeding meeting.

Frank made 11 of 15 field goals en route to a game-high 26 points and pulled down a game-best 10 rebounds to help power Fairmont to a 69-54 Big South Conference victory over the Jackson County Central Huskies at Cardinal Gym.

Point guard Nick Eversman threaded one of his co-game-high six assists to Frank in the low post to help the Cardinals open the battle of sectional rivals with a 9-0 surge.

Frank cleaned the offensive glass for a putback basket, Eversman hit Jack Hested for a left-corner 3-pointer and Zach Jorgensen weaved through lane traffic for a leaner for Fairmont before junior guard Rudy Voss finally ended JCC’s scoring drought with the first of his five 3-pointers on the night at the 15-minute juncture.

Voss eventually finished the game with a team-best 23 points, but actually attempted four more shots — 15 — behind the arc than the entire Fairmont lineup.

In fact, the Cardinals scorched the nets on 6-for-7 shooting from 3-point range — 86 percent — during the first half en route to an 8-for-11 performance overall for 73 percent. Fairmont finished 28 of 48 combined from the floor for 58 percent on the night, including an incredible 17-for-26 field-goal performance during the initial 18 minutes to build a 40-22 lead by intermission.

“In the first half, we shared the basketball about as well as possibly could. We seemed to always find the right person in the right place at the right time, and it doesn’t hurt when a lot of those shots go in,” Fairmont head coach Jared Thompson said with a grin.

Ahead 22-14, the Cardinals received instant offense off the bench from power post Lucas Denney to reel off 11 unanswered points. Denney spotted Eversman for a left-corner 3-pointer before Dustin Schultz distributed one of his co-game-high six assists to Denney for a trey from the top of the key.

Denney, who finished with 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting, displayed his moves in the paint for a 10-foot jumper before drilling another trifecta off an Eversman dish for a 33-14 lead with 3:33 remaining in the opening half.

Eversman then tossed in two of his 10 points off a cut to the basket and pinpoint pass from Schultz for a 12-foot runner with 4 seconds to go before intermission to extend the Cardinals’ lead to 40-22.

Voss poured in 14 points on the strength of four 3s and doled out all four of his assists during the second half, but the Huskies could not get any closer than 12.

Andrew Hesebeck converted a cutter, Voss drained a pull-up 3 and Noah Carr hit a solo free throw to inch JCC within 55-43 with 5 minutes remaining, but the towering Frank answered single-handedly with an 8-0 run from the low post.

Jorgensen, Eversman and Schultz each delivered assists to the Cardinals’ high-scoring post player to re-establish a 20-point lead at 63-43 with 3 minutes to go.

Schultz pulled down nine rebounds, doled out six assists and scored just two points, but his defensive performance could not be defined in the game’s boxscore, according to Thompson.

“He (Schultz) might have been our best player of the game due to the defensive effort he gave us against Rudy (Voss),” said Thompson. “His length and strength made Rudy work really hard for his points tonight, so I doubt if Dustin had much energy left on the offensive end tonight. That’s contributing to the overall team effort.”

So where will the two Section 3AA wind up in the seedings early next week?

“We talked to our guys in the pregame and told them not to worry about the seedings,” said Thompson. “Just relax, play good basketball and everything will take care of itself.”

Fairmont (10-12) travels to Worthington today for a 1:30 p.m. rescheduled conference game. Jackson County Central (15-9) plays host to Blue Earth Area on Thursday night in Jackson.

JCC 22-32–54

FHS 40-29–69

FAIRMONT (69)

Schultz 1-7 0-0 2, Hested 2-5 0-0 6, Frank 11-15 4-6 26, Jorgensen 3-4 0-2 6, Eversman 4-5 1-2 10, P. Ortega 1-1 0-0 3, Denney 5-9 0-0 13, Flohrs 1-2 0-0 3, Keltgen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-48 5-10 69.

JCC (54)

Voss 9-21 0-3 23, Hassing 1-6 3-5 6, Hesebeck 3-4 0-0 7, Brinkman 1-5 1-2 3, Carr 3-6 3-6 10, Bargfrede 1-4 1-2 3, Buhl 1-6 0-0 2. Totals 19-52 8-18 54.

3-pointers: Fairmont 8-11 (Denney 3-4, Hested 2-4, P. Ortega 1-1, Flohrs 1-1, Eversman 1-1); JCC 8-29 (Voss 5-15, Hesebeck 1-1, Hassing 1-6, Carr 1-2, Buhl 0-2, Brinkman 0-3). Fouled out: Hested. Rebounds: Fairmont 30 (Frank 10, Schultz 9); JCC 29 (Bargfrede and Hesebeck 6 each). Assists: Fairmont 19 (Schultz and Eversman 6 each, Jorgensen 5); JCC 5 (Voss 4). Steals: JCC 8 (Voss 4); Fairmont 6.

Tanner Rosch produced a double-double performance of 19 points and 13 rebounds to guide Fairmont to a 48-37 victory over Jackson County Central during B-squad action Friday night in Fairmont.

Jackson Francis contributed 13 points to the Cardinals’ winning ways.

Worthington 66, Blue Earth Ara 58 — Terbuto Ochothow poured in a game-leading 34 points to engineer the Trojans’ eight-point Big South Conference triumph over the Bucs on Friday night in Worthington.

Karasharo Ojulu contributed 15 points to the winning effort by Worthington, which held a 36-24 lead at halftime.

Caelan Sanders tallied 14 points to top Blue Earth Area’s performance, Cameron Anderson contributed 12 points, while Carter Bell chipped in 11 points.

Blue Earth Area (10-11) travels to Jackson County Central on Thursday night.

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