Staff Photo by Jake Olson: Fairmont's Makenzie Lowry eyes down her corner 3-point attempt during the first half of Tuesday night's matchup against Blue Earth Area. The senior finished her outing with 16 points on 60% shooting from the field.

FAIRMONT – Tuesday night’s matchup between the Fairmont girls basketball team and Blue Earth Area resulted in another dominating win for the Cardinals. Head coach Sara Junkermeier’s team scored over 40 points in each half of play at the Fairmont High School gymnasium, leading to a 90-43 victory that extended their record to 15-1.

Fairmont’s Brylee Miller missed just four field goals in pursuit of her 34-point scoring performance, further stuffing the stat sheet with 10 rebounds, seven assists and five steals. Makenzie Lowry and Bria Williamson gave the Cardinals 28 points off the bench, combining for 10 field goals and four 3-pointers.

The Cardinals finished the contest connecting on 11 outside shots while assisting on nearly 60% of their made shots.

“I just felt like we finished with more confidence,” Junkermeier said. “It just seemed like everybody had more confidence tonight, and that’s the name of the game. If you don’t have that, it’s pretty hard to play, so it was just fun to see them just flow easily into the offense.”

Junkermeier’s team had the responsibility of countering BEA’s tightly compacted 2-3 zone throughout the night. While the opening minutes gave Fairmont some trouble, the Cardinals’ perimeter passing and finishing in the paint opened up the floodgates offensively.

Consecutive 3-pointers from Miller and Emelia Klanderud set up an open Williamson at the free throw line for an easy jumper, giving Fairmont an early 14-5 edge with under 14 minutes to go in the opening half.

The lead swelled further as the Cardinals used their traditional transition offense. Miller used her speed and athleticism to generate three straight coast-to-coast layups after gathering a defensive rebounds, giving her team an even bigger 24-5 advantage.

An outside shot from Lowry jump-started a 13-5 scoring run that put Fairmont up 51-20 with one minute remaining in the half. However, BEA continued to find success with its outside shooting. 3-pointers from Lola Lundquist and Ella Swanson charged a mini 9-5 run for the Buccaneers to close out the first half, cutting Fairmont’s lead to 56-29.

BEA opened the second half with three more 3-pointers from Emersen Weir, Myla Eastman and Lundquist against Fairmont’s new 2-3 zone, causing Junkermeier to call a timeout at the 15:05 minute mark with her team up 67-38.

Junkermeier and her team used this break to discuss defensive strategy, then switched back to a man-to-man concept for the rest of the way. The perimeter pressure improved the final portion of the game. Fairmont held BEA to just five points the rest of the second half.

“I felt like we struggled a little bit to get to close-outs on the shooters, and we talked about it at halftime,” Junkermeier said. “Our zone didn’t do what we wanted it to [early in the second half], so we went back to man. I felt like our man was better in the late part of the second half nd we were ready to lock someone down.”

More transition chances from Fairmont’s Miller, Lowry and Olive Kawecki continued to drive the team’s scoring run, giving the Cardinals a 75-38 lead to propel the rest of the way. Fairmont finished the final 15 minutes on a 23-5 scoring run.

Fairmont (15-1) will travel to Jackson County Central this Friday in hopes of keeping its seven-game winning streak alive. Tip-off will start at 6 p.m. in the home Husky gymnasium.