ABOVE: Fairmont's Brylee Miller puts up a shot from inside the paint against Belle Plaine Tuesday night in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT – In the second meeting of the season between the Fairmont Cardinals and the Belle Plaine Tigers, Fairmont was able to sweep the series, first with a 54-40 victory and in the Tuesday night game taking a 61-44 win, moving to 13-5 overall and 9-4 in conference play.

“We started off well,” said Fairmont head coach Sara Junkermeier. “Then we kind of got down on ourselves a little bit, and then we picked it back up, and we never turned back.”

Leading the Cardinals was Brylee Miller with 19 points, while Bria Williamson had 16 points. Ellie Ortega had 10 points and Makayla Lowry had 8 points.

The first half opened with the two teams getting a feel for each other. Once Fairmont found where they would be effective they got to work swinging the ball around the perimeter to open up the lane and driving hard to the basket. This proved effective for Fairmont, who opened the game with a 7-0 run started by a Miller layup.

The Cardinals continued to be dominant at both ends of the court through the first nine minutes of the half, going up 22-3. A timeout by Belle Plaine to talk things over got the Tigers’ offense going. Belle Plaine, having struggled to get the offense rolling, found success from beyond the arc with Emma Martin hitting three 3-point shots, but between Miller, Lowry, and Williamson hitting their shots, the Cardinals never surrendered the lead, closing the half up 35-28.

Belle Plaine continued to try and chip away at the Fairmont lead. However, the Cardinals raised the intensity of the game by keeping the Tigers on their heels with a combination of hard drives through the paint and effective outside shooting.

Miller and Ortega continued to find success driving to the basket. When the inside lane was taken away by the Tigers, the hot hand of Williamson was able to drain the bucket from outside, which put the Cardinals up 61-40. Belle Plaine put up 4 more points before the final buzzer, locking in the 61-44 Fairmont victory.

Fairmont is heading into the final stretch of the season with seven games to go; the Cardinals are 7-1 at home. Out of the remaining games, only two are on the road, giving the Cardinals a homecourt advantage, which will be vital as subsection play approaches.

“It always feels good to play on your home court,” said Junkermeier. “We’ve had our share of road games here the past few weeks, and it just felt good to be back on our home court. and then to know that we get another one here on Friday and yeah we’re just going to keep doing what we do in hopes that we can be here when it comes to subsection play.”

The Cardinals host the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers at 6 p.m. on Friday.