ABOVE: Fairmont’s Hadan Toomer fires a jumper against the Martin County West Mavericks in a nonconference boys basketball game Saturday in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT – Dominant physical play by the Cardinals led to a 69-31 victory over the Martin County West Mavericks in a nonconference boys basketball game Saturday night.

Leading the Cardinals in the 38-point victory was Oliver Tordsen with 12 points, 14 rebounds and three steals, while Logan Junkermeier had 12 points, 10 rebounds and four steals. Joe Long put up 8 points and Harmon Schrunk had 8 points and two steals on the night for the Cardinals. Fairmont shot 45 percent from the field in the game, playing a key factor in the win.

“I didn’t think we played particularly well defensively,” said Fairmont boys head coach Jared Thompson. “I thought we benefited from some missed shots by them in the first half. I knew they would make those the second half, but our defensive assignments were really good the second half. And offensively, we just did a better job of finding the space that’s there. Just the rhythm of the offense was there for us in the second half.”

The Cardinals’ awareness and second-half improvements were also highlights for Thompson.

“Our guys just got to the right spots,” he said. “We challenged them. We had eight turnovers at the half. That’s too many against a non-pressure zone defense. We only had five in the second half, so that was great. We only had three offensive rebounds at half, and we ended with 14. That was another challenge of the halftime message to the boys. We got 11 the second half. We shot well, but we also rebounded most of our misses. It’s a good recipe. We outscored them by 26 points in the second half. Like I said, our best half of the year.”

Junkermeier opened the scoring for the Cardinals who took a quick 7-0 lead before Olson was able to sink a 3 to get the Mavericks on the board. Junkermeier’s hot hand kicked off an 8-0 run where Toomer would lob a ball up for Junkermeier, who finished the alley oop with a dunk to bring the Cardinals lead to 15-3. The Mavericks were kept off the board for just over five minutes before adding 2 points to the tally. Long and the Mavericks’ Wilmes then traded 3s, bringing the score to 18-8. The Cardinals outscored the Mavericks in the final minutes of the half 8-6 and carried their 26-14 lead into the break.

Toomer, Tordsen and Long got the scoring going in the second half for the Cardinals, who went on a 12-0 run that kept the Mavericks off the board for the first five minutes of the half.

With 12 minutes remaining, Kale Larson sank two free throws, but Schrunk sank a floater from inside the paint and Junkermeier scored on a layup, extending the Cardinals’ lead to 43-18.

Larson found his range and drained a 3-pointer before the Mavericks called a timeout trying to find a way back into the game. The Cardinals continued to add to the lead, proving effective from the inside using their height advantage below the rim to maintain control.

With 4:37 left in the game, the Cardinals were up 56-27. In the final three minutes of the second, the Cardinals outscored the Mavericks 13-1 to secure the victory.