Blue Earth Area’s Caden Juba (4) tries to get around Fairmont’s Joe Hackett (3) during second half action in Fairmont on Jan. 31.

If the Blue Earth Area boys basketball team was going to keep up with their rivals from Fairmont when they met on Jan. 31, at the Cardinals’ gym, they were going to need to make a high percentage of their 3-point shots.

And that’s just what they did in the first half when they knocked down nine of their 15 shots (60 percent) from behind the arc to only trail Fairmont by three points at the half.

However, BEA cooled off in the second half and Fairmont made the most of their height advantage to pull away in the closing stanza and defeat the Bucs 71-50.

It looked like BEA might get blown off the court early in the first half. Behind the play of Fairmont’s post players, Logan Junkermeier and Oliver Tordsen, and some solid outside shooting, the Cardinals built a 17-6 lead seven minutes into the game.

A 3-pointer by the Bucs’ Branson Hauskins cut the Cards’ advantage to less than 10 points with just under 11 minutes to play in the first half. But, Fairmont answered with their own basket from behind the arc by Joe Hackett to increase their lead to 20-9.

BEA worked the ball inside to Peter Fletcher for two points and Will Bromeland sank two free throws to pull the Bucs within seven points of their I-90 rivals at 20-13. However, over the next couple of minutes, the Cards outscored the Bucs 6-2 to get their lead back to double digits at 26-15 with seven minutes remaining in the opening stanza.

The Bucs scored the next 12 points on three 3-pointers by Bromeland and one by Sully Dahlberg to take their first lead of the game at 27-26 with 3:43 to go until the end of the first half.

Later, with the first half coming to an end and the score tied 33-33, Fairmont’s Hadan Tommer made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the teams to their locker rooms for the intermission with the Cardinals leading 36-33.

Bromeland’s 3-pointer to begin the second half tied the game at 36-36 before Fairmont took the lead for good.

BEA kept the game within reach until about seven minutes remained in the contest. The Bucs were down by eight points, but the Cards went on a 16-0 run to put the game away.

The Bucs ended up shooting 44.4 percent (12-for-27) from behind the arc and 46.2 percent (6-for-13) from inside the arc. BEA went to the free-throw line two times and made both of their shots.

Fairmont was 8-for-25 (32 percent) from 3-point range and 20-for-30 (66.7 percent) from 2-point range. The Cards took 13 shots from the charity stripe and made seven (53.8 percent).

BEA scored 10 of their points from inside the paint compared to 38 for Fairmont. The Cards had 28 rebounds compared to 24 for the Bucs.

The Maroon and Gold committed 16 turnovers while Fairmont was charged with only three.

Bromeland led the Bucs in scoring with 26 points followed by Gage Barker with eight and Hauskins and Dahlberg with six each.

Tordsen scored 22 for the Cards while Junkermeier added 20.

Isaac Anderson was the leading rebounder for BEA with five and Barker led the team with five assists.

The Bucs played at Martin County West on Feb. 6 and hosted Belle Plaine on Feb. 7. They will be on the road to take on Redwood Valley on Feb. 11 before returning home to host Pipestone Area on Feb. 13.

The Bucs will travel to Worthington for a game on Feb. 18. BEA will wrap up their regular season schedule at home against Waterville-Elysian-Morristown on Feb. 25.