TWO TOWARD A GRAND — Blue Earth Area’s Ashton Lloyd (23) attempts to muscle a shot between Fairmont’s Levi Pooley (right) and Sawyer Tordsen (0) during Big South Conference basketball action Friday night at Cardinal Gym in Fairmont. The Cardinals’ David Maakestad (1) looks on. Lloyd went on to score the 1,000th point of his prep career. (Photo by Greg Abel)

FAIRMONT — Entering Friday night’s Big South Conference basketball match-up with Fairmont, Blue Earth Area’s 6-foot-5 senior post player Ashton Lloyd knew he was only seven points away from cementing his legacy into the Bucs’ history book by scoring his 1,000th career point during a 59-44 victory over the Fairmont Cardinals at Cardinal Gym.

“Humbling moment. Proud to play with a great team around me. Glad they could get me the rock and I was able to put it in,” Lloyd said. “That’s a nice accomplishment to have in basketball. I try just to be out there and help my teammates out. To create flow, open up the floor a little bit and just try to come out of games with the win, so points really don’t matter to me that much.”

Austin Skaden and Lloyd gave the Bucs the spark they needed by swishing back-to-back buckets to jump out to a 9-2 lead two and half minutes into the game. History would be made with 13:37 left in the first period as Lloyd scored his 1,000th point to extend the lead 13-4 by driving down the middle for the finish.

“He was cut short a little bit with having a shorten sophomore season with Covid. He had an outstanding season as a junior. It’s special for him to get that thousandth point and be one of the few. I think we’ve only had four or five guys in the Blue Earth Area to ever gotten to that mark. He’s an outstanding athlete. He’s a special kid. He’s more concerned about winning basketball games than what his own statistics are,” Bucs coach Colby Swanson said.

Cardinals coach Jared Thompson knew his team had to get off to a quick start in order to compete with the Bucs as they were going for the season sweep. The Cardinals were able to cut to their deficit to 13-8, then 25-18 with 4:38 left of the first period as Hadan Toomer drained a one-hander near the Bucs’ bench.

“We have struggled to get off to good starts in a lot of games this year. They banked in the three that was rough, but I thought we battled back. The tough part we’ve been able to close gaps at the end of halves here lately. This one grew on us and that was harder to go into halftime down 15 for sure,” Thompson said.

Skaden extended the Bucs’ lead to 32-18 with an NBA-range 3 with no one guarding him with 1:52 remaining in the period.

“I worked a lot on my shooting over the past few years. Shooting has really been my specialty for this team. I’m able to get those kick out 3s and then hitting that one is really important because it helped extend our lead and gave us momentum going into that timeout,” Skaden said.

Coming out the half, the Cardinals tried to make a run with 16:06 remaining in the game as senior Gavin Junkermeier found the open pass to senior guard Brendan Schmidtke, who banked the 3 behind the Cardinals bench trailing 36-24. The following possession, Skaden would come away with a defensive steal and off to the races he would go for the easy lay-up leading 38-24. Coming off the bench junior forward Blaze Geiger scored six of his 10 points in the second period. One of Geiger’s buckets scored came from an assist from senior guard David Maakestad under the basket from a throw in with 12:50 left trailing 44-30.

“He did a good job coming off the bench and giving us some energy. He is not very big, but he is very crafty in the paint. He finds his way against bigger guys and plays extremely hard. He did have a nice second-half for us,” Thompson said.

Leading the way for the Bucs was Lloyd with 20 points and Skaden chipped in with 14. The Cardinals were led by senior post player Sawyer Tordsen with 11 points, six rebounds — five of them came in the second period. Sophomore guard Levi Pooley contributed with nine points all came in the first period.

“Austin (Skaden) gave us a lot of energy defensively. He was all over the floor doing a great job. He was digging in there and getting some steals and then he made some big shots too. He scored a couple layups and transition knocked down a 3. This might have been one of Skaden’s best overall performance of the season,” Swanson said.

Fairmont (2-11) travels to Marshall (6-9) on Tuesday night.”They’re traditional powerhouse. We haven’t played them for a few years, so it’ll be fun to play. It’s a fun environment over there. Fun place to play. Not really looking forward to a 2 1/2 hour drive, but I am excited to play Marshall. We have lot of respect for them so,” Thompson said.

Blue Earth Area (10-5) plays host to St. Peter on Tuesday night.

Oliver Tordsen produced a game-best 22 points to guide Fairmont to a 51-49 win over Blue Earth Area during B-squad action Friday night in Fairmont.

Harmon Schrunk tallied 12 points for the Cardinals, while Nolan Schultze tossed in nine points.

Logan Junkermeier scored a game-high 16 points to help engineer Fairmont’s 61-41 victory over Blue Earth Area during C-squad action Friday night in Fairmont.

Merritt Pomerenke generated 14 points for the Cardinals, while Joe Long added 10 points.

Martin County West 81, Cleveland 26 — The Mavericks poured in a dozen 3-pointers and limited the Clippers to less than 20 points per half to coast to the 55-point Valley Conference victory on Friday night in Cleveland.

Zach Anderson and Mitchell Weber packed a potent 1-2 offensive punch for Martin County West by collecting a pair of double-double performances.

Anderson scored a game-best 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, distributed five assists and pocketed four steals for the Mavericks, while Weber netted 21 points and garnered 10 boards.

Wyatt Williamson made it a trifecta rebounding effort by matching Anderson and Weber with 10 caroms to fuel MCW’s 43-23 edge on the glass.

Raef Omvig scored eight points for the Mavericks, while teammate Jamesson Forsberg supplied six rebounds and doled out five assists.

The Mavericks connected on 17 of 33 shots from 2-point range, 12 of 28 behind the 3-point arc and 11 of 18 at the free throw line.

Gabe Sullivan scored eight points to top Cleveland.

Martin County West (10-8) plays host to St. Clair on Monday night in Sherburn.

Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/ Martin Luther 53, St. Clair 52 — Jackson Madsen scored 13 points, including a pair of late free throws, to help the Jaguars stave off the Cyclones by one during Valley Conference action Friday night in Granada.

Madsen also pulled down five rebounds, while teammate Jakob Fischer topped the Jaguars by scoring 15 points, paced by a 7-for-8 performance at the free throw line. Fischer also grabbed six rebounds and garnered three steals.

Peyton Franzen delivered a double-double performance of 10 points and 12 rebounds, while Carter Fox supplied nine points and six boards.

Brandon Meng tossed in a game-best 19 points and doled out six assists to top St. Clair.

The Jaguars (8-8) travel to Alden-Conger on Monday night for another conference game.