BUMP & STEAL — Fairmont’s Brylee Miller bumps Windom Area guard Hadley Sammons before swiping away the basketball during their Section 3AA, South Sub-Section championship game Tuesday night in St. James. Fairmont’s Grace Pendergast (left) and Hope Klanderud look to assist on the play. Windom Area went on to rally for a 75-71 win over Fairmont. (Photo by Greg Abel)

ST. JAMES — Two months ago, Windom Area head coach Jacob Johnson thought his Eagles basketball team had lost guard Anja Nielsen to a knee injury.

The 5-foot-8 Nielsen snapped the nets on a career-high eight 3-pointers en route to a career-best 26 points to help No. 2-seeded Windom Area rally to a late 75-71 victory over the No. 1-seeded Fairmont Cardinals for the South Sub-Section championship Tuesday night.

Windom Area (22-7) advances to face North Sub-Section champion New London-Spicer (27-2) for the Section 3AA crown at 8 p.m. Friday night at Southwest Minnesota State in Marshall.

Fairmont ended its season with a 16-12 overall record.

“It turned out she didn’t have a torn ACL and eventually rejoined our team the second week of February,” Johnson said in reference to sharpshooting Nielsen, who actually finished one trifecta short of the school’s single-game record on Tuesday.

“We got in some early foul trouble in our playoff game against Jackson last Thursday, and Anja came off the bench and hit four 3s for 18 (points) in our (81-69) win,” said Johnson. “When Fairmont came out in a zone tonight, we knew we had to run some sets and get some looks for her, and she hit shot after shot after shot.”

Nielsen drained three of her four first-half 3s to help Windom Area build a 26-20 lead with 6 1/2 minutes to go before intermission.

Brylee Miller and Ellie Ortega, however, countered for Fairmont during the final 5 minutes to inch within 37-36 by halftime.

Ortega converted one of Miller’s game-best six assists into a baseline jumper before Hadley Sammons countered with a pair of free throws for the Eagles.

Hope Klanderud, who hit three 3s en route to 11 clutch points off Fairmont’s bench, spotted Ortega for a low-post spin move before Hannah Dauer nailed a 3-pointer for Windom Area.

Miller, who tossed in a team-leading 19 points to complement her double-double that included a game-high 10 rebounds, followed Grace Pendergast’s one-and-one conversion with a scooping runner with 4 seconds remaining to help the Cardinals trail by just one at the break.

After sitting the majority of the first half due to foul problems, Nevaeh Rahm tossed in 14 of her 16 points to join Klanderud and Pendergast in rallying Fairmont for a second-half comeback.

Rahm’s traditional 3-point play staked the Cardinals to their first lead of the game at 41-40 before Eagles guard Haidyn Sammons countered with two of her 19 points off a runner to regain the lead.

Pendergast nailed the third of her team-best four 3s to recapture the lead for Fairmont at 44-42 before Klanderud knocked down back-to-back treys to extend the margin to 50-42.

Enter Nielsen from long range and Haidyn Sammons inside the lane. Nielsen’s slashing scoop off an offensive rebound and her ensuing right-wing 3, combined with Hadley Sammons’ cross-over runner, whittled Windom Area’s deficit to just one at 55-54 with 7:14 remaining.

After battling to ties at 59 and 61, Haidyn Sammons’ baseline drive served as the Eagles’ catalyst behind a 12-4 surge to put the game out of reach.

Hadley Sammons converted a pair of one-and-ones, while Nielsen stuck one last 3-pointer from the left corner to widen Windom Area’s lead to 73-65 with 59 seconds to go.

Windom        37-38–75

Fairmont       36-35–71

FAIRMONT (71)

Ava Terfehr 1-4 0-0 3, Ellie Ortega 3-5 0-0 6, Nevaeh Rahm 6-8 4-5 16, Grace Pendergast 5-16 2-2 16, Brylee Miller 8-17 2-6 19, Hope Klanderud 4-9 0-0 11. Totals 27-59 8-13 71.

WINDOM (75)

Leah Hauge 0-2 0-0 0, Hannah Dauer 3-11 6-6 13, Tristyn Maras 4-8 0-1 8, Hadley Sammons 1-4 7-8 9, Haidyn Sammons 8-18 0-0 19, Anja Nielsen 9-12 0-1 26, Adison Hogan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-55 13-16 75.

3-pointers: Windom 12-23 (Nielsen 8-11, Haidyn Sammons 3-4, Dauer 1-4, Hauge 0-2, Hadley Sammons 0-2); Fairmont 9-28 (Pendergast 4-14, Klanderud 3-7, Terfehr 1-3, Miller 1-4). Fouled out: Maras. Rebounds: Windom 28 (Maras 7); Fairmont 25 (Miller 10, Rahm 7). Assists: Fairmont 15 (Miller 6, Ortega 4); Windom Area 13 (Hadley Sammons 5, Haidyn Sammons 4). Steals: Windom Area 11 (Haidyn Sammons 5); Fairmont 10 (Miller 4).

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Boys Basketball

Mankato Loyola 65, Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther 55 — Quinn Kelly tossed in a game-best 16 points to steer the No. 4-seeded Crusaders to a 10-point playoff victory over the No. 5-seeded Jaguars on Tuesday night in Mankato.

Mankato Loyola advances to face No. 1-seeded Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey in a 6 p.m. Section 2A quarterfinal on Thursday night at St. Peter High School. The Wolverines eliminated the No. 8-seeded Martin County West Mavericks by a 77-32 decision.

Brody Grathwohl netted a team-best 14 points for the Jaguars, who closed out the season with an 11-16 record.

Jackson Madsen generated nine points and grabbed six rebounds for the Jaguars, while Bryce Borkenhagen delivered nine points, seven steals and five boards.

Carter Fox chipped in seven points and 12 rebounds for GHECTML, while Carson Hastad added seven points.

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Waseca 92, Blue Earth Area 53 — The No. 2-seeded Bluejays connected on 15 3-pointers and had four players reach double-figure scoring totals to coast by the No. 7-seeded Bucs during Tuesday night’s playoff clash in Waseca.

Waseca advances to play Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton at 7:30 p.m. Thursday night in a Section 2AA quarterfinal at Fairmont High School.

Max Loge produced a team-best 17 points, including two 3-pointers, for Blue Earth Area (11-14).

Gage Barker tallied 11 points for the Bucs, while Sullivan Dahlberg chipped in nine points.

Laird Keeton drained three 3s to pace his game-best 17-point performance for Waseca, while Damarius Russell, Carson Ohnstad and Zach Hulscher each supplied 14 points apiece. Ohnstad and Hulscher connected on four trifectas each, while Russell sank two treys.