ABOVE: Fairmont's Ellie Ortega goes for a layup against the Granada-Huntley East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther Jaguars Monday night in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT – The Fairmont Cardinals’ quick scoring offense took an early lead and never looked back, defeating the Granada-Huntley/Truman/Martin Luther Jaguars 69-45 Monday night in a nonconference girls basketball game.

“I thought we did better in the second half,” said GHEC/T/ML head coach TJ Pytleski. “We played really well in the second half. We had a couple of droughts in the first half which has kind of been our [pattern] this year. We turn the ball over, we get stuck on a number, but in the second half I thought we did a much better job and I was happy with the way we played the second half. If we can play like that going forward, I think maybe we can get a win in the playoffs.”

Leading the Cardinals was Brylee Miller with 23 points, while Gwyneth Schultz had 21 points. Makayla Lowry had 9 points, while Ellie Ortega had 6 points.

Leading the Jaguars was Londyn Bowers with 20 points and three steals, while Keira Benck had 16 points and two rebounds. Harley Geistfeld had 5 points and three rebounds, while Madison Lewis had 4 points and three rebounds.

The first half got off to a slow start with only 10 points being scored through the first five minutes. The Cardinals started to get their offense rolling with the bucket from Miller followed up by a layup from Schultz putting the Cardinals up 6-5. The Jaguars were trying to get the offense going when Geistfeld drained a 3-pointer, but Fairmont responded with a 17-0 run started by Miller to go up 27-8. There was 6:21 left on the clock when Benck reopened the scoring for the Jaguars. The Cardinals continued to maintain the pressure on the Jaguars and secured a 40-18 lead at the half.

The Jaguars made an adjustment on the defensive side increasing the intensity of the press and were able to force more turnovers. The increased opportunities gave the Jaguars a chance to get the offense going, which the team took advantage of by cutting into the deficit 49-32.

The Cardinals adjusted and went back to basics, swinging the ball around the perimeter and finding an open shooting lane to extend the lead to 57-36. The Jaguars kept applying pressure but the lead was too much to overcome and the Cardinals secured the victory.

“Well, it was the best thing that could have happened to us,” said Fairmont head coach Sara Junkermeier. “To play with more pressure because it made us have to be more mindful of doing the little things better, and I thought we’d kind of stepped away from that, but that pressure made us have to think about it a little bit more.”

Now 17-7 overall and 12-6 in conference play, the Cardinals host Luverne for a 7:30 p.m. game on Tuesday. The Jaguars are now 12-8 overall and 8-4 in conference play and will play in an all-conference meeting on Wednesday at 7 p.m.