ABOVE: Fairmont's Emelia Klanderud drives to the outside looking for space in a Big South Conference girls basketball game against St. James at Fairmont High School Friday night.

FAIRMONT – The Fairmont Cardinals’ defense put on a dominant showing in their outing against the St. James Saints Friday night, securing the victory 59-41 in a Big South Conference girls basketball game.

In the practices leading up to the game, the focus was on the fundamentals for the Cardinals as well as ball control to mitigate turnovers.

“We really focused the last two practices of this week prior to this game on working on some of the fundamental skills that we were struggling with, and knowing that we can’t turn the ball over as many times as we have been if we want to be successful,” said Fairmont girls head coach Sara Junkermeier. “And I could not be more proud of these kids for how hard they worked and how passionate they were about getting better and then coming into the game tonight and executing that was top-notch on their part.”

Leading the charge for the Cardinals was Brylee Miller with 25 points, Ellie Ortega netted 11 points, Makayla Lowry put up 10 points, and Gwyneth Schultz added 7 points.

The Cardinals came out strong in the first half by holding their opponent to just 14 points but let off the gas a little in the second, prompting a timeout and a conversation between Junkermeier and her players.

“Our big thing was there was still a lot of time on the clock and during the timeout the saying that we had was, ‘We’re never satisfied, we are not satisfied with how we are playing right now and the amount of time that’s left in the game. So we need to buckle down and go out and play,’ said Junkermeier. “I think they took that to heart. And then we went on a little run there and we kind of got our momentum back and they were backing off of us a little bit because they knew that we were getting a lot of looks in the lane. So to St. James’ credit, they were backing off and making us prove ourselves from the outside.”

Miller opened the first half by driving to the net to put the Cardinals on the board first. Fairmont continued to build on the lead, only allowing 4 points in the first four minutes of the game. With 13:30 in the half, the Cardinals were up 11-6.

The Saints tried to cut into the Cardinals’ lead but could only pull within 4 points with the score sitting at 13-11. Miller was left open outside the arc and drained an open 3, kicking off an 11-0 run by the Cardinals. With 7:34 remaining in the opening frame, Miller broke free and drove to the rim to net an easy layup. This energized the Cardinals, who showed an uptick in tempo when Ortega stripped the ball from the Saints and fed it to Miller ,who netted another bucket. It took the Saints four minutes to find the bottom of the net, with the score now sitting 25-14 for the Cardinals in what ended up being the final time they scored in the half. The Cardinals netted 9 points with the help of a Miller 3 at the buzzer to take a 34-14 into halftime.

The second half opened with more of the same as the Cardinals continued to shut down the Saints’ offense, only giving up 5 points in the first three-and-a-half minutes. The Cardinals went up 36-16 with the help of freshman Geyneth Schultz’s fast-break bucket. The Cardinals went up 40-21 with 12:18 left to play.

The Cardinals’ relentless defense kept the Saints’ scoring to a minimum the rest of the way before the Cardinals closed the game with an open layup by Klanderud.

The Cardinals’ next game is home against Martin County West at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14.