FAIRMONT — Late in the first half, St. Peter began attacking the post.

The Saints scored seven points from the paint in the final five minutes of the first half to take a lead, then scored their first 15 points of the second half from short range to build to their 52-39 Big South Conference win over Fairmont on Friday.

Sarah Conlon and Morgan Kelly produced most of the Saints’ low-post offense at Cardinal Gym in Fairmont, combining for 28 points on 10-for-24 shooting.

The Cardinals held a 17-12 lead with 5:30 left in the opening half before Conlon got going.

She used back-to-back post-entry assists from Abby Haggenmiller to score five points, going to the free throw line for attempts at a traditional 3-point play both times and making one of two.

Conlon then used an assist from Madison More for another post score.

The Saints outscored the Cardinals 12-3 in the final seven minutes of the first half to go into the break ahead 25-20.

Cardinal head coach Sara Junkermeier said she was happy with her team’s performance against a tough opponent.

“I thought we came out and we battled the entire game,” Junkermeier said. “We knew we’d have to do it, St. Peter is good. We knew if we backed down from them, they would take over. We put good defensive intensity on in the first half, we had the lead for a while, we were right with them at halftime. We came out a little flat in the second half and we could have rolled over right then when they started taking that lead, but we decided to keep battling.

“We switched up our defense to something they (Cardinals) weren’t really familiar with and I thought they handled that extremely well. At this point in this season, those are the things you have to be able to do. You have to adjust and adapt and just try new things as it goes.”

Kelly controlled the Saints’ offense through a 13-4 run in the first 6:30 of the second half.

Conlon scored 2 more from the post before More turned a steal into a layup.

Kelly then used an assist from Conlon for a short jumper, converted a traditional 3-point play and used a post-entry pass from Emma Jones for a layup. Kelly scored 13-consecutive points for the Saints in a six-minute span.

Bryn Miller broke the Saints’ run when she used a post-entry pass from Faith Olson for 2 of her 10 points, then Cadence Becker hit back-to-back free throws to start a scoring run of her own.

Becker drove past a corner trap for a layup, made another free throw and used a Maggy Totzke assist for a turnaround jumper, to score seven consecutive Cardinal points, helping lead to her team-high 15.

The Cardinals got within 49-38 with 1:15 left, but couldn’t close the gap any further.

The Cardinals built an early lead on an 11-4 run to open the game.

After Josie Wiebusch faked a 3 to create space for a driving layup to open the scoring for the Saints, Miller put up a putback 2 to tie the game. Becker then made two of her seven free throws on the game to put the Cardinals ahead before Rayah Quiring made a putback shot of her own.

Becker assisted Emma Gudahl on a cutter through the lane to go ahead 8-4 at the 11:51 mark, then Becker assisted Olson on a trifecta from the right wing to give the Cardinals a seven-point advantage.

Becker complemented her 15 points with four rebounds, two assists and two steals, while Miller added six boards to her 10-point showing.

Quiring had six rebounds, while Madysen Allen grabbed four boards and pocketed two steals. Cassidy Schultz knocked away three steals, while Totzke had a team-high three assists.

Kelly totaled a double-double for the Saints with 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Conlon had 13 points and dished out three assists. Wiebusch scored 12 and brought down six boards for St. Peter, Rhyan Holmgren had 10 rebounds and More and Emma Jones each dished out three assists.

The Cardinals (14-9, 5-5 Big South) play host to Jordan at 7:15 p.m. Monday in their penultimate regular-season game. Fairmont then plays Albert Lea on Thursday for its final regular-season contest.

Junkermeier said the tough end to the season is exactly what the Fairmont coaching staff wants.

“This is perfect for us,” Junkermeier said. “We have two regular-season games left and including St. Peter, we have three tough games to end the year. There’s not an easy game that we’ll play. In our eyes as coaches, this is the perfect situation to be in because every game we get into, we’re going to have to play extremely hard to come out with a win. That will be perfect leading us into the playoffs.”

St. Peter (19-5, 9-1 Big South) plays host to Worthington at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for its final matchup before the section playoffs begin.

St. Peter 24-28–52

Fairmont 20-19–39

Fairmont (39)

Becker 4-10 7-11 15, Miller 5-15 0-0 10, Olson 1-4 2-2 5, Gudahl 1-6 1-2 3, Quiring 1-2 0-0 2, Allen 0-1 2-2 2, Schultz 1-3 0-0 2, Totzke 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 13-42 12-17 39.

St. Peter (52)

Kelly 6-14 3-7 15, Conlon 4-10 5-6 13, Wiebusch 5-9 0-0 12, More 1-2 3-4 5, Holmgren 1-5 0-0 3, Kamm 0-0 2-4 2, Maloney 1-3 0-0 2, Jones 0-3 0-0 0, Haggenmiller 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-46 13-21 52.

3-pointers: FHS 1-8 (Olson 1); STP 3 (Wiebusch 2, Holmgren 1). Fouled out: none. Rebounds: FHS 24 (Miller and Quiring 6 each, Becker and Allen 4 each); STP 35 (Kelly 11, Wiebusch 6, Holmgren 5). Assists: FHS 9 (Totzke 3); STP 11 (More, Conlon and Jones 3 each). Steals: FHS 12 (Schultz 3); STP 6. Blocks: FHS 1; STP 2.

St. Peter outscored Fairmont by 13 in the second half to take a 41-38 B-squad win Friday in Fairmont.

Claire Nemmers reached double digits with 10 points for the Cardinals, while Emily Frank, Quiring and Olivia Ortega each had eight.

Abby Cihoski scored 11 points and brought down seven rebounds to help lead the Cardinals to a 28-12 C-squad win over St. Peter on Friday in Fairmont.

Jazlyn Geerdes also reached double-digit scoring with 10 points, while Anna Busche dished out three assists and pocketed five steals.

The C-squad Cardinals advanced their record to 13-3 on the season.

Windom 67, Martin County West 58 — The Eagles scored 46 second-half points to soar by the Mavericks during non-conference basketball action Friday in Windom.

Sami Meyer led the Mavericks with 18 points to complement three rebounds and three steals, while Marissa Whitehead totaled 11 points, dished out three assists and pocketed a co-team high four steals.

Emily Dunlop was the other Maverick to poke away four steals, while scoring eight points and bringing down a team-high nine rebounds. Kari Matejka, Liz Fisher and Gabby Lange each scored seven points.

The Mavericks made 24 of 43 shots from 2-point range, 2 of 7 from 3 and hit 4 out of 8 free throws.

MCW (10-11) plays host to New Ulm at 7:15 p.m. Monday in Sherburn.

Windom 21-46–67

MCW 31-27–58

Sleepy Eye 71, Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther 55 — Kaydince Thoms led all scorers with 20 points, pacing the Sleepy Eye Indians in their 71-55 non-conference win over the Jaguars in girls basketball on Friday night.

Sleepy Eye led 36-30 at halftime.

Eden Studer tossed in 14 points and pulled down 15 rebounds for the Jaguars. Teammate Michaelah Petrowiak added 12 points and seven rebounds.

Jayme Balcom scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Jaguars. Makayla Hall had six points and six rebounds.

The Jaguars shot 23 of 75 from the field, including 3 of 14 from 3-point range. They were 6 of 12 from the free throw line.

The Jaguars (10-13) play host to United South Central at 7 p.m. Monday in Granada.

Boys Basketball

St. Peter 73, Fairmont 57 — The Saints made 10 shots from 3-point range to notch a 16-point Big South Conference win over the Cardinals on Friday in St. Peter.

Wyatt Frank led the Cardinals with 22 points to complement seven rebounds, while Jack Hested added 10 points to the Cardinals’ efforts.

Carter Bell scored eight points, while Caden Baarts dropped seven and brought down a team-high eight rebounds. Zach Jorgensen complemented a six-point performance with a team-high five assists.

Wyatt Olson led the Saints with 18 points, while Josh Johnson had 16 and Ethan Volk scored 10.

Fairmont (13-7, 6-3 Big South) plays host to Waseca at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Fairmont 31-26–57

St. Peter 36-37–73

Waseca 83, Blue Earth Area 52 — Kyreese Willingham scored 22 points to lead the Class AA No. 2-ranked Bluejays past the Bucs on Friday in Blue Earth.

Andrew Morgan and Matt Seberson each added 16 points to the Bluejays’ winning ways, while Ryan Dufault had 13.

Cameron Anderson lead BEA with 12 points, while Caelan Sanders scored 10.

Gavin Storbeck added eight points to the Bucs’ effort, Austin Thielfodt had six and Braden Gudahl and Jacob Olson each had four.

BEA (9-9) goes on the road for a 7:15 p.m. matchup Monday with New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva.

Waseca 44-39–83

B.E. Area 28-24–52

North Union 53, West Bend-Mallard 40 — The Warriors held a 27-12 advantage through the second and third quarters to take a nonconference win over the Wolverines Friday in Armstrong and end the regular season with a win.

Robert Ortman totaled 15 points and 15 rebounds to earn a double-double for the Warriors, while adding three assists and four steals.

Noah Morphew connected for 13 points, while Gage Madden scored 11, grabbed five rebounds and pocketed a team-high seven steals.

North Union (3-18) plays at Sioux Central in the first round of the Class 2A District 3 playoffs at 8 p.m. Monday.