Staff Photo by Jake Olson: Fairmont's Emelia Klanderud prepares to fire a 3-pointer during the first half against Jackson County Central on Saturday night.

JACKSON – Fairmont girls basketball’s hot scoring first half propelled the team to its 16th consecutive win of the season this past Saturday night, taking down Jackson County Central 79-54 and improving its record to 24-1.

The Cardinals had five players score eight or more points in an overall balanced effort. Brylee Miller led the team with a 21-point and 12-rebound double-double. Olive Kawecki keeps taking advantage of her time in the starting lineup after knocking down three 3-pointers to power her 12 points. Emelia Klanderud also tallied three outside shots for her 11-point night. Bria Williamson and Gwyneth Schultz each had eight points.

Fairmont finished with eight 3-pointers and assisted on over half of their made field goals.

“We played unselfishly,” Fairmont head coach Sara Junkermeier said. “We moved the ball and found the open shooter.”

The tight ball movement on the perimeter was needed against the Huskie defense, which immediately showed a 2-3 zone to pack the paint and force tough shots. But after establishing a presence at the top-of-the-key, the Cardinal ball movement stayed true, swinging the ball inside-out to take advantage of a slow rotation.

Klanderud made the most of the unselfish ball movement after knocking down two of her 3-pointers in the first couple of minutes, the ladder coming from a Makenzie Lowry dish from the inside to give her team a 10-8 lead.

Fairmont continued to stay hot on this side of the court after a corner Kawecki 3-pointer finished a personal eight-point scoring run to bring her team up six. Lowry used her precise passing one more time after finding a cutting Schultz in transition, causing Huskie head coach Rafe York to call a timeout with his team down 20-12.

Junkermeier’s team finished the final nine minutes of the opening half scoring 21 points, including an 8-3 run that gave her team a 51-31 advantage going to the break in action.

JCC opened the second half with motivation to make it a tight game. Consecutive layups from Tressa Withers, Madisyn Wachal and Zadi Farmer drew their deficit to just 61-45 with under 12 minutes on the scoreboard.

The Cardinals did what they do best to push the game out of reach: play complementary basketball. Forcing three turnovers in the next four possessions, Fairmont brought things back to a 20-point lead after Williamson found Madilyn Thompson for an outside look at the rim.

“We struggled a bit [defensively] in the first half,” Junkermeier said. “But we communicated better in the second half, and that just helped with our rotations.”

Fairmont held the Huskies to 11 points over the last 11 minutes of the contest, including forcing more than five steals.

The Cardinals (25-1) will play Marshall on Tuesday night for a shot at the Big South Conference Championship. Tip-off starts at 7:30 p.m.