THREE’S A CROWD ­— Fairmont’s Brylee Miller (with basketball) drives through Windom Area’s Hadley Sammons (2), Hannah Dauer (4) and Haidyn Sammons (right) during Big South Conference action Tuesday night at Cardinal Gym in Fairmont. (Photo by Greg Abel)

FAIRMONT — Four seconds … three … two. Grace Pendergast elevates, releases her 3-pointer. … Back rim, front rim, the shot clock’s edges glow fluorescent red and the last-second shot trickles through the Cardinal Gym net.

Pendergast’s buzzer-beating trifecta erased a two-point deficit to transform the Fairmont Cardinals into a 57-56 winner over the Windom Area Eagles during Big South Conference basketball action Tuesday night in Fairmont.

“I’ve never made a game-ending buzzer-beater at the varsity level,” said Pendergast. “Initially I thought it (last-second shot) was going to hit the rim and bounce out. Then I saw it hit the rim again, the light went on (around the backboard) and it dropped in.

“You could call it an ‘unintentional fade shot,'” Pendergast said with a smile.

Brylee Miller, who topped the Cardinals’ balanced scoring attack with 14 points, cleared the defensive board off of Haidyn Sammons’ missed second free throw with 10 seconds remaining in regulation.

Miller pushed the basketball upcourt and eventually spotted Pendergast at the top of the key for the final make-it-or-break-it shot.

“Our girls did a nice job of applying defensive pressure to trigger our comeback from an eight-point deficit with about eight minutes left in the second half,” said Fairmont head coach Sara Junkermeier.

Hannah Dauer drained a right-wing 3-pointer to extend the Eagles’ lead to 48-40 before the Cardinals assembled a 6-0 run to whittle their gap to two with 6:27 to go in regulation.

Kennedy Becker banked home a layup off a Miller steal-turned-assist, Nevaeh Rahm sank the front end of a two-shot foul before Pendergast alertly rebounded the missed second toss. Pendergast flipped a scoop pass to Miller for the baseline lay-in to inch Fairmont even closer at 48-45.

The Cardinals fouled down the stretch and the strategy paid dividends as the Eagles made only 3 of 6 free throws during the final 4 1/2 minutes.

Ava Terfehr scored nine of her 11 points during the opening 18-minute half to help stake Fairmont to early leads of 17-10 and 21-14 before Haidyn Sammons countered for Windom Area. Sammons poured in 15 of her game-best 21 points — including a 3-for-3 performance from 3-point range — to help the Eagles claim a 31-26 halftime lead.

Pendergast collected seven rebounds, a co-game-best four steals and doled out three assists to complement her 12-point performance for Fairmont, while Miller generated seven rebounds, four assists and three thefts to go with 14 points.

Terfehr netted 11 points and distributed four assists, while Rahm finished with an impressive double-double performance of 11 points and a game-best 13 rebounds for the Cardinals.

“When you get four players in double digits in scoring at the varsity level, you don’t lose too many games,” said Junkermeier. “We had great balance tonight.”

Haidyn Sammons topped the Eagles by pulling down 10 boards to pace the team’s 39-36 edge on the glass to go with three steals, while Hadley Sammons chipped in nine points, eight boards, four steals and three assists.

Dauer finished with 10 points, while Anja Nielsen nailed three 3-pointers to net nine for Windom Area.

Fairmont (1-0) plays host to Tri-City United at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Cardinal Gym in a nonconference game. Windom Area (0-1) plays host to Adrian/Ellsworth at 6 p.m. Thursday night.

Windom    31-25–56

Fairmont   26-31–57

FAIRMONT (57)

Anderson 1-3 0-0 3, Terfehr 4-9 3-4 11, H. Klanderud 0-2 0-0 0, Pendergast 5-11 1-2 12, Miller 7-15 0-2 14, Rahm 3-6 5-9 11, Ortega 0-0 2-2 2, Becker 2-5 0-0 4, E. Klanderud 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-51 11-19 57.

WINDOM (56)

Haidyn Sammons 7-11 3-6 21, Hadley Sammons 3-13 3-5 9, Dauer 3-11 2-2 10, Nielsen 3-9 0-0 9, Hauge 0-5 5-8 5, Tjentland 0-3 0-0 0, Hogan 1-5 0-0 2. Totals 17-44 13-21 56.

3-pointers: Windom Area 9-24 (Haidyn 4, Nielsen 3, Dauer 2); Fairmont 2-10 (Pendergast and Anderson 1 each). Fouled out: Rahm. Rebounds: Windom Area 39 (Haidyn Sammons 10, Hadley Sammons 8); Fairmont 36 (Rahm 13, Miller and Pendergast 7 each). Assists: Fairmont 16 (Terfehr and Miller 4 each; Pendergast and H. Klanderud 3 each); Windom Area 6 (Hadley Sammons 3). Steals: Fairmont 15 (Pendergast 4); Windom Area 15 (Hadley Sammons 4).

Makayla Lowry produced 10 points and seven rebounds to guide Fairmont to a 36-26 victory over Windom Area during B-squad action Tuesday night in Fairmont.

Carys Gudahl and Kennedy Becker each contributed seven points to the Cardinals’ winning effort.

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Jackson County Central 76, Blue Earth Area 56 — Rylie Cother poured in 30 of her game-leading 39 points to trigger the Huskies’ 44-23 second-half comeback to down the Bucs in Big South Conference action Tuesday night in Jackson.

Kylee Wenzel tossed in 17 of her 23 points to pack extra offensive punch to Cother’s incredible second-half performance for JCC.

Lola Lundquist erupted for a team-best 30 points and distributed six assists to top BEA’s effort.

Katherine Armon collected 15 points, doled out six assists and grabbed five rebounds for the Bucs, while teammate Madelyn Ferguson supplied seven points and six boards.

Blue Earth Area (0-1) plays host to New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva on Thursday night, while Jackson County Central plays host to Pipestone Area on Friday night.

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St. Clair 64, Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther 59 — Brooklin Hinze generated a game-best 22 points and Steph Cink netted 18 more to twist the Cyclones to a five-point Valley Conference victory over the Jaguars on Tuesday night in St. Clair.

Bethany Petrowiak collected 14 points, six rebounds and three steals to pace the Jaguars’ effort, while McKenna Benck netted 11 points, seven boards and three steals.

Londyn Bowers produced 10 points and six rebounds for the Jaguars, Keira Benck garnered seven points and five boards, while Olivia Mattson added seven points and three assists.

The Jaguars (0-1) play host to Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons on Friday night in Truman, while St. Clair (1-0) travels to Madelia on Friday night for another conference outing.