By John RittenhouseThe Luverne boys’ basketball team split Southwest Conference games on the road.The Cardinals lost a 17-point decision to Redwood Valley in Redwood Falls Friday before posting a five-point win in Windom Tuesday.Luverne, 7-4 overall and 2-3 in the SWC, hosts Southwest Christian tonight before entertaining Lennox, S.D., Tuesday.Luverne 74, Windom 69The Cardinals posted their first road win during the tenure of LHS coach Tom Rops Tuesday in Windom.Four Cardinals reached double figures in scoring during what Rops described as being a satisfying experience."It was a very good team effort," he said. "This was our first road win in a number of years, and a lot of kids contributed to it. I’m very happy and proud of these kids for the way they are working. We’re headed in the right direction, but we got to keep improving."Luverne raced to a 19-11 lead in the first quarter before increasing the difference to 12 points (38-26) at halftime. Windom trimmed the difference to nine points (53-44) in the third quarter and used a late shot to make it a five-point separation at game’s end.Jared Pick and Brandon Deragisch scored 18 and 17 points respectively to lead the Cards. John Tofteland and Scott Boelman added 15 and 12 points to the cause. Nick Heronimus passed for seven assists. Deragisch picked up three steals.Box scorePick 4 0 10-10 18, Tofteland 4 2 1-3 15, Herman 3 0 0-0 6, S.Boelman 4 0 4-6 12, Lange 1 0 1-3 3, Deragisch 0 4 5-7 17, Heronimus 0 1 0-0 3.Team statisticsLuverne: 23 of 44 field goals (52 percent), 21 of 29 free throws (72 percent), 29 rebounds, 18 turnovers.Windom: 23 of 60 field goals (38 percent), 18 of 27 free throws (67 percent), 26 rebounds, 12 turnovers.RWV 67, Luverne 50RWV used a great start to open a 19-point halftime lead and went on to best Luverne by 17 points Friday in Redwood Falls.The hot-shooting hosts opened 23-11 and 43-24 leads at the first two quarters.Luverne trimmed the difference to 16 points (50-36) in the third quarter, but its six-game winning streak came to an end when RWV used a 17-16 scoring edge in the fourth quarter to win by 17."We played pretty well," said Cardinal coach Rops. "They were just deadly shooting the ball early in the game. I was glad to see our kids didn’t give up. We came out and tried to fight with them in the second half."Brad Herman led LHS with 15 points. Heronimus charted five assists. Deragisch registered five assists.Box scorePick 2 0 0-0 4, Herman 7 0 1-2 15, Deragisch 3 0 0-0 6, S.Boelman 4 0 0-0 8, Heronimus 1 1 2-2 7, Lange 2 0 0-0 4, Antoine 0 2 0-0 6, Graphenteen 0 0 0-1 0, M.Boelman 0 0 0-2 0.Team statisticsLuverne: 20 of 42 field goals (48 percent), three of seven free throws (43 percent), 19 rebounds, 18 turnovers.RWV: 25 of 59 field goals (42 percent), 13 of 15 free throws (87 percent), 20 rebounds, 10 turnovers.
