Staff Photos by Jake Olson: Fairmont's Tavian Harvey scans the court during the second half of Saturday night's contest against Jackson County Central.

JACKSON – Fairmont’s Logan Junkermeier didn’t have a lot to work with. Fitting anything inside a 1.6-second timeframe is difficult. But a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer? Even harder.

The Cardinals had one shot to deliver the equalizing blow against Jackson County Central on Saturday night. Trailing 63-60, Fairmont’s final possession would ultimately decide whether fans packed inside the Huskie gymnasium would see free basketball.

Junkermeier’s path to the right side inbound suddenly gave him enough space to catch the ball, gaining control of the leather before skying up to fire the desperate heave to the hoop. The ball danced around the rim before spilling out as the final buzzer sounded. Ball game.

“It was fun to be in the fight,” Fairmont head coach Jared Thompson said. “We said [before the game] that they would knock us down a million times, and we will get up a million and one. That’s how you have to play. They are physically imposing more than any team in the state.”

Thompson knew the rematch versus JCC would be one of the biggest challenges his team had faced this season. The last time these two foes faced each other was during the opening weeks of the 2025-2026 campaign, when the Cardinals held off a late rally by the Huskies to earn a 55-47 victory.

This time around was different for two reasons: Roman Voss and Weston Rowe.

The two future Division I football players couldn’t play against the Cardinals in round one because they were participating in the 2025 Minnesota High School Football All-Star game. Since their reinstallation in the lineup, the Huskies have posted a 17-3 record, including an 11-game winning streak over the past month and a half.

Voss and Weston Rowe each had their fingerprints on JCC’s revenge against Fairmont. Voss stuffed the stat sheet with an 18-point, nine-assist, six-rebound and three-steal performance, while Rowe manned the middle after notching 14 points and cleaning up six rebounds.

“Those are two Division I football players who could be easily playing college basketball,” Thompson said. “They are special players and great kids.”

Junkermeier’s strong second half fueled his 19-point scoring performance that led all Fairmont players. Joe Long joined him in double figures with 13 points, while Joseph Hackett chipped in nine off one made 3-pointer.

The new-look Huskies posed an even bigger threat for Fairmont on both sides of the court. It didn’t take long for JCC to adjust to the Cardinals’ 3-2 zone, using their perimeter athleticism to drive and find the open man when the Fairmont defense collapsed.

Voss found Austin O’Reilly and Weston Rowe on back-to-back dribble dump-offs in the paint, causing Thompson to call a timeout at the seven-minute mark with his team down 23-14.

Offensively, Fairmont struggled to match JCC’s physical, man-to-man defense, which extended well beyond the 3-point line. The Huskies did a great job of limiting post touches to Junkermeier and Reed Johnson while making it hard to attack the paint.

But following Long’s top-of-key 3-pointer and a Johnson layup, Fairmont walked into halftime down 30-23.

Fairmont’s offense began to click. Players on the court began to gain more confidence, and with post entries to Junkermeier and Johnson opening up, the guards had more chances to attack from the perimeter.

With momentum on their side, Fairmont continued to settle in after stringing together solid possessions on the offensive end. Consecutive hook shots from Junkermeier cut the Huskie lead to 32-31 and ended an 8-2 scoring run.

JCC responded with a pair of 3-point plays from Ben Gallagher and Sullivan Hall to stave off the Cardinal comeback. This was a trend for the rest of the contest. Whenever Thompson’s team inched itself within a couple of possessions, the Huskies always had the answer.

3-pointers from Voss and Blaise Rowe gave their team its largest cushion of the second half at 49-36 with just over 10 minutes to play. However, a swift drive to the right from Tavian Harvey led to an and-one layup for the senior, again cutting the lead back to 10 points.

With the offense now at full speed, Thompson’s team just needed to gather a handful of stops to pull themselves into a one or two-score ball game.

“We went down and kept coming back,” Thompson said. “I thought we generated some good offense in the second half.”

The final push started after Thompson called a timeout with five minutes on the clock following a Junkermier low-post score. His team faced a 60-52 deficit. Thompson knew that this was their last chance to make a run at the lead.

Fairmont answered the bell with urgency. The Cardinals followed Hall’s putback score with consecutive baskets from Hackett and Johnson to bring the game within four. Junkermeier capped off the scoring run with an open-court slam that put his team down 62-60 as 1:40 showed on the scoreboard.

Voss sank the front-end of his two foul shots on the next possession to keep the game within one score. Two possessions later, with the Huskies looking to put the game out of reach, Junkermeier came up with the clutch defensive play after taking a charge on Weston Rowe.

Cardinal point guard Brayden Williamson called a timeout in the corner of the court with 1.6 seconds on the clock, prompting the sideline in-bounds play right in front of the Fairmont bench. Despite not getting the game-tying look to fall, Thompson was impressed with his team’s effort to battle and fight back constantly.

“We fought and we scraped,” Thompson said. “I am proud of that part of it.”