Staff Photo by Jake Olson: Fairmont's Reed Johnson (25) fends off Luverne's Jaydon Johnson during the first half of Tuesday night's back-and-forth contest in the Fairmont High School gymnasium.

FAIRMONT – The Fairmont boys basketball team got some payback on Tuesday night, but it wasn’t easy as they pulled away late for a 58-46 win over Luverne in a Big South Conference, Gold Division game.

Clinging to a 52-46 edge over Luverne with a handful of minutes left in Tuesday night’s back-and-forth matchup, Logan Junkermeier block set the stage for Fairmont’s inbounds situation under their own hoop.

Joe Long found the ball at the top of the key with his eyes peeled to Joseph Hackett weaving through a slew of white jerseys, finding the sharpshooter on the right wing behind the 3-point line. Hackett calmly flew the ball from his fingertips, watching his shot connect with nothing but nylon as his team could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“When he’s [Joseph Hackett] open from three in the last four minutes, you just have a lot of confidence that it’s going in,” Fairmont head coach Jared Thompson said.

That basket proved to be the turning point as Fairmont avenged its early-season defeat to Luverne, which came on Dec. 2, 2025.

Tuesday’s win improved the Fairmont Cardinals’ record to 11-2 on the season and 8-1 in the conference.

Junkermeier’s strong second half powered his 31-point and 14-rebound performance. Hackett finished the night with three 3-pointers, and Josh Soelter connected with two outside shots to fuel an eight-point scoring output.

“I have so much respect for Luverne. They are as well-coached and tough a team as we have faced physically and mentally,” Fairmont head coach Jared Thompson said. “They [Luverne] have an answer for everything. …We just kept fighting. It’s been a few years since we have been able to defeat them, and the guys really wanted this one.”

Things started to seem eerily similar to these two teams’ matchup early in the season. Luverne head coach John Sichmeller had his team playing with patience and poise against Fairmont’s 2-3 defensive scheme in the first half, using inside-out passes to create clean looks everywhere on the court.

Luverne took its biggest lead of the night after taking advantage of two missed layups from Fairmont on the other end. Coy Thone punctuated a 6-2 scoring run with a back cut layup behind the lines of Fairmont’s defense to give his team a 19-10 cushion.

“Their [Luverne] zone offense was really good tonight,” Jared Thompson said.

Six straight points from Junkermeier began the rally Thompson’s team needed. After Luverne’s defense continued to gravitate towards the center, Junkermeier used his vision to generate looks on the outside. Jordan Thompson capitalized on this with a spot-up 3-pointer from the right wing that cut Fairmont’s deficit to 22-19 with under five minutes in the half.

Both teams missed a handful of shots before the intermission buzzer, but free throws from Luverne propelled them to a 27-24 advantage heading into the break.

Luverne regained a lead with just under 12 minutes to go in the contest, coming out of a timeout with consecutive makes from Connor Bose and Coy Thone to bring their team up 44-38.

Looks from Junkermeier down low propelled Fairmont back in front with under eight minutes to play. The senior scored six of the Cardinals’ nine straight points to put his team back up 47-44. Fairmont would close the game’s final seven minutes with a methodical 11-2 scoring run that was capped off by a Junkermeier and-one finish with seconds remaining on the scoreboard.

Fairmont (11-2) will face Blue Earth next Tuesday at Fairmont High School, starting at 7:30 p.m.