Luverne post Scott Boelman (34) delivers a one-hand pass during Thursday’s home boys’ basketball game against Southwest Christian in Luverne. The Cardinals let an eight-point lead slip away in the fourth quarter and dropped a 45-42 decision.By John RittenhouseThe Luverne boys’ basketball team dropped a pair of tight decisions at home.The Cardinals lost a three-point game to Southwest Christian in Luverne Thursday before falling by four points to Lennox, S.D., Tuesday.Luverne, 7-6 overall, plays in Marshall Friday and in Pipestone Tuesday.Lennox 48, Luverne 44Lennox outscored the Cardinals 28-24 in the second half to win Tuesday’s game in Luverne by four points.The teams battled to draws at 12 and 20 in the first two quarters, but Lennox was able to overcome cold shooting at the free-throw line (15 of 32 in the game) to nip the Cards by four in the second half."They kept us in the game by missing some free throws, but we just couldn’t get over the top," said Luverne coach Tom Rops. "The kids played extremely hard. One of these nights we’ll find a way to win one of these close games."Lennox used a 14-11 scoring edge in the third quarter to open a 34-31 lead before outscoring the Cards 14-13 in the final eight minutes.Brandon Deragisch netted 13 points to lead LHS. Jared Pick added 10 points and three steals to the cause. Nick Heronimus pulled down seven rebounds, passed for four assists and came up with three steals. Brad Herman added seven rebounds.Box scorePick 2 1 3-4 10, Tofteland 2 1 2-3 9, Herman 1 0 0-0 2, Deragisch 2 3 0-0 13, Stegemann 1 0 0-0 2, S.Boelman 1 0 1-2 3, Heronimus 0 0 2-4 2, Lange 0 0 3-6 3.Team statisticsLuverne: 14 of 36 field goals (39 percent), 11 of 19 free throws (58 percent), 25 rebounds, 10 turnovers.Lennox: 16 of 31 field goals (52 percent), 15 of 32 free throws (47 percent), 26 rebounds, 12 SWC 45, Luverne 42The Cardinals were seconds away from posting their biggest win in a number of years when they entertained the Eagles Thursday.Unfortunately for LHS, the win never came.SWC rallied from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter, and the comeback included scoring five points in the final 13.5 seconds of the game, to pull out a three-point victory over Luverne."This one would have put us on the map," said a disheartened LHS coach Tom Rops, after the game. "Obviously, we didn’t finish the game the way we needed to. We definitely had some chances to score late in the fourth quarter, but the ball didn’t fall in for us."The Cardinals were in position to knock off the Eagles when they turned a one-point (24-23) halftime lead into an eight-point (39-31) cushion by outscoring SWC 15-8 in the third quarter.SWC, however, pulled to within two points (42-40) with less than two minutes left to play before Marshall Pater converted a three-point play with 13.5 seconds remaining to give the Eagles a 43-42 edge. Luverne’s Herman took an open jumper with five seconds left, but the shot was off the mark. SWC’s Matt Van Schepen grabbed the rebound and made two free throws after being fouled with 2.1 seconds remaining to cap the coring."We’ve got some pretty disappoined guys in our locker room, but they’ve got to make sure they don’t dwell on this loss because we did a lot of good things in this game," Rops said. "We need to move on and improve on the things we need to work. The next time we’re in the same situation like this, hopefully, we’ll learn how to win."Heronimus led LHS with 11 points and eight rebounds. Pick scored 10 points and came up with four steals.Box scorePick 4 0 2-2 10, Tofteland 0 1 1-2 4, Herman 0 0 0-0 0, Deragisch 1 1 0-0 5, S.Boelman 3 0 1-4 7, Heronimus 3 1 2-2 11, Lange 1 0 3-4 5.Team statisticsLuverne: 15 of 41 field goals (37 percent), nine of 14 free throws (64 percent), 30 rebounds, 23 turnovers.SWC: 15 of 41 field goals (37 percent), 10 of 17 free throws (59 percent), 20 rebounds, 19 turnovers.
