ABOVE: Fairmont's Hadan Toomer makes a move to the inside hunting for a scoring lanein a Big South Conference Boys basketball game against St. James at Fairmont High School Friday night.

FAIRMONT- The Fairmont Cardinals boys basketball team came to life in the second half of their game against the St. James Saints on Friday night with the help of a flurry of 3-pointers to propel themselves to a 61-54 victory in their home opener.

“You could tell our guys were excited to play their first home game,” said Fairmont boys basketball head coach Jared Thompson. “Our first probably 10 shots were about 3 feet too long. I think we had some good adrenaline in those shots. And we were just excited to play.

Defensively, I thought we were solid both halves.”

Leading the Cardinals was Logan Junkermeier with 17 points, Oliver Tordsen with 15 points, and Hadan Toomer with 14 points. Trevor Maakestad and Joseph Hackett also added 6 points apiece.

The defense showed up in a big way for the Cardinals. Thompson cited rebounding and the ability to defend the 3-point line as keys to holding the Saints to 54 points.

“I thought we were really good for stretches,” said Thompson. “Holding St. James, as a very good offensive team to 54 points, I think it was a good performance. We’ll win a lot of basketball games if we can hold teams like St. James to around 50.”

The first-half scoring started with an early foul that sent the Saints to the free-throw line, giving them the first 2 points of the game. Tordsen and Junkermeier quickly tied things up with a pair of layups to make it 4-4. Just under halfway through the opening frame, the Saints had jumped out to a 14-6 lead courtesy of a 7-0 run, prompting a timeout and quick conversation at the Fairmont bench. Toomer came out of the huddle and almost immediately stripped the ball from the Saints and drove to the net, reopening the scoring for the Cardinals and kicking off a 6-0 run that put the Cardinals within 2, 14-12. There was a quick exchange of buckets before a Saints 3 put them up 21-14. Toomer and Maakestad both connected on shots from behind the arc helping the Cardinals inch closer when a hard drive by Tordsen led to a basket and a foul, closing out the half with the Cardinals down 26-22.

Tordsen opened up the scoring for Fairmont in the second half with an easy 2 and he followed up with an emphatic dunk to pull the Cardinals within 4 points. Junkermeier then scored to cut the deficit to 2. Toomer tied things up with 14:07 on the clock, but it was short-lived thanks to a 5-0 run by the Saints.

It was around the 10-minute mark that Hackett and Junkermeier began to heat up, combining for 15 points to give the Cardinals a 47-43 lead with 5:47 remaining in the game. The closest the Cardinals let the Saints come was a 5-point deficit before the final buzzer and they secured a 61-54 victory.

The Cardinals’ next game is at home against Redwood Valley at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.