ABOVE: Fairmont's Makayla Lowry drives to the basket in a Big South Conference girls basketball game against Waseca Friday night in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT — The Fairmont Cardinals (8-3) had their eyes on getting back in the win column Friday night and did so with a dominant defensive outing against the Waseca Bluejays (1-14) 32-14 in a Big South Conference girls basketball game.

“Tenacity on defense definitely kept us in the lead in this game,” said Fairmont head girls basketball coach Sara Junkermeier.

Leading the scoring for the Cardinals was Brylee Miller with 11 points, while Ellie Ortega had six points. Kennedy Becker and Gwyneth Schultz each had 5 points.

Coming into the game with an understanding of the Waseca offense, the Cardinals were prepared for Waseca’s outside shooting.

“We knew they like to shoot the 3,” said Junkermeier. “We worked really hard on being able to close out and stop their shots and I felt like we did a decent job with that.”

The Fairmont offense got off to a slow start in the first half, but its zone defense shut the Bluejays down. A minute and a half in Schultz opened the scoring for the Cardinals.

On a drive to the basket, Schultz drew a foul for her first points of the night. Despite Waseca’s defenders converging on a driving Schultz, it wasn’t enough to stop her from hitting the layup. On the subsequent drive, Schultz again drew the foul, putting the Cardinals up 4-0. Soon after Miller joined the scoring before another Schultz free throw put a cap on the 7-0 run by Fairmont. It took Waseca five minutes and 10 seconds to get on the board courtesy of a Gracie Morgan bucket which was followed up by a Mia Kanewischer bucket to bring the Bluejays within 3, 7-4. An 8-0 run by the Cardinals closed out the half 15-4.

The second half maintained a slow pace of play. Fairmont was able to expand on its lead with Miller and Ortega hitting shots to go up 24-6. It took Waseca nine minutes to reopen the scoring for the Bluejays, but the Fairmont zone was able to protect the Cardinals’ lead while an 8-0 run that began with an Ortega bucket put the Cardinals up 32-8. Waseca put up 6 unanswered points as the clock dwindled to zero, locking in the Fairmont win.

The Cardinals head to Windom at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.