Staff photo by Jake Olson: Fairmont's Tavian Harvey drives towards the hoop during the second half of Tuesday night's game against Blue Earth Area. The Cardinals complete the regular season sweep over their rival with a 53-46 victory in the Fairmont High School gymnasium.

FAIRMONT – Fans in the Fairmont High School gymnasium were expecting another nail-biting contest between the Cardinals and the visiting Blue Earth Area boys basketball team on Tuesday night. The previous matchup between these two teams on Dec 9th was an overtime thriller in which head coach Jared Thompson’s team clawed out a comeback road victory against the octane Buccaneers, 61-52.

The rematch was no different. Fairmont used a strong opening 18-minutes to hold off a late scoring run from BEA, taking down the Buccaneers 53-46 to extend the team’s winning streak to seven. Fairmont moves its record to 12-2 with this victory, as Thompson’s team is now a perfect 7-0 at home this season.

“It was fun to get off to a really good start, which we haven’t done the last few games,” Thompson said. “Leading at half, we didn’t lead at half all last week, and I feel like we played a really good first half.”

Scoring was spread out yet efficient for the Fairmont offense. Logan Junkermeier led all individuals with 13 points while hauling in four rebounds. Joseph Hackett connected on two outside shots to fuel his 10-point output. Reed Johnson matched that number with 10 points of his own on five made field goals. The trio finished Tuesday night shooting over 71% from the field.

As alluded to before, the Cardinals opened the contest playing some of their best first-half basketball of late. The size matchup of Junkermier and Johnson immediately emphasized interior scoring in the early minutes, drawing the attention of multiple defenders and clearing the way for Fairmont guards to have clean paths to the hoop.

The Cardinals started things off with a scoop layup from Brayden Williamson and two post touches from Junkermeier to take an initial 6-0 advantage. Thompson’s team made sure to feed the senior center anytime he had a one-on-one matchup, using multiple post entry passes to get the perfect look down low.

Defensively, Fairmont opened the game with an aggressive 2-3 zone, pressing the Buccaneer perimeter to prevent drive and kicks to the many BEA sharpshooters. However, William Bromeland had a response to this outside pressure. The guard knocked down three 3-pointers en route to bringing his team back into the contest with a 14-10 advantage.

“They [BEA] are a team that can dribble penetrate but can just really shoot,” Thompson said. “The problem is that their shooters can shoot from so far out that it spreads the floor even more for them to drive and move.”

After Williamson and Caden Juba traded baskets to even things up at 16, the Cardinals responded with a methodical 14-7 to close out the remaining nine minutes of the first half.

Fairmont’s defense slowly began to adjust to BEA’s shooters, harassing the Buccaneers’ perimeter attack into difficult shots and leading to steals the other way. Offensively, it was much the same as before: attacking the paint. Hackett nailed consecutive layups before Bromeland finished his scorching hot first half with a buzzer-beating outside shot to bring his team to a 30-23 deficit.

Thompson’s offense continued the second half taking advantage of different matchups with his forwards down low, especially with Johnson. With foul trouble giving the 6’5 junior advantageous looks in the paint, Junkermeier did a fantastic job of clearing the lane and hitting his running mate on a handful of post-ups.

Johnson scored his team’s opening six points during the final 18 minutes, ballooning the Fairmont advantage to its largest of the night at 36-23.

“Reed was huge,” Thompson said. “We got Peter Fletcher in foul trouble right away in the first half, and Reed was able to take advantage in the second half when he got his third. …They did not have a good matchup for Reed once they got into foul trouble.”

The Buccaneers countered with a 2-3 zone of their own, using the packed-in defensive look around the 15-minute mark to limit the interior disadvantage.

Fairmont’s offense began to stall in all phases. BEA took advantage of the missed shots and turnovers to claw itself back into the contest, with scores from Ryder Dutton, Sullivan Dahlberg and Juba cutting the Cardinal lead to five.

Lapses in the zone defense began to show after Fairmont started reversing the ball from side to side, leading to gaps for layups from Junkermeier, Williamson and Tavian Harvey to stop the bleeding. Fairmont extended the lead further after consecutive 3-pointers from Hackett capped off the 12-point Cardinal scoring surge.

“We didn’t find good seams in it right away,” Thompson said, referring to BEA’s 2-3 zone. “The timeout there where we just talked about spacing, we didn’t anticipate a 2-3 zone tonight. …The guys kind of refocused. We come out, and Joseph hits two big threes that took them out of it [the zone].”

A mix of full-court pressure and precise passing led to a dangerous response from the Buccaneers. BEA’s offense started to click against the Cardinals perimeter pressure, paving the way for a three-minute 13-0 run that moved the score to 48-44 with a handful of minutes to play.

A Bromeland layup put the ball in Fairmont’s hands with now just a four-point advantage. It was Joe Long who answered the bell on the ensuing two Cardinal possessions.

The senior gave his team the initial breathing room after converting on a tough take to the right side of the hoop that stopped the scoring drought. After Fairmont’s defense created one last turnover with a loose ball, Long found Junkermeier in a high-low passing exchange that resulted in an and-one layup to ultimately put the game out of reach.

“I thought Joe Long’s layup was huge,” Thompson said. “We hadn’t scored for a while, they had cut it to four, and I think everybody collected their breath after that. The next possession, Logan gets that and-one, and now you are back up by nine.”

Fairmont (12-2) will continue its rigorous schedule this Friday, traveling to Jackson County Central for a rematch against the 11-5 Huskies. Tip-off in Jackson is set for 7:30 p.m.