By John RittenhouseThe Luverne boys ended a three-game basketball slide by nipping Madison, S.D., 66-65 in Luverne Tuesday.The Cardinals fell behind by seven points in the first half only to rally and take a six-point lead in the fourth quarter.Madison bounced back to trail by one point in the game’s final minute, and it had a chance to win the game when Luverne missed a free throw with six seconds left in the game.The guests, however, missed a four-foot shot at the buzzer and lost the game by one point."Our kids needed a win like this and they found a way to get one," said Cardinal coach Tom Rops. "We hung in there and had a really good third quarter. I thought our kids that came off the bench came in and made some contributions for us."Madison led 17-11 after eight minutes of play and sported a 31-24 lead at the intermission.Luverne trimmed the difference to one point (50-49) by outscoring Madison 25-19 in the third period before using a 17-15 scoring edge in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.Brandon Deragisch led the Cards with 17 points, while Nick Heronimus chipped in 16 points and six assists. Jared Pick netted 11 points and led LHS with seven rebounds. John Tofteland charted four steals.The 9-11 Cards play in Jackson tonight before hosting Marshall Saturday.Box scorePick 3 0 5-8 11, Tofteland 1 1 0-2 5, Herman 3 0 0-0 6, Deragisch 2 4 1-2 17, S.Boelman 1 0 0-0 2, Heronimus 3 1 7-10 16, Lange 2 0 2-3 6, Stegemann 0 1 0-0 3.Team statisticsLuverne: 20 of 44 field goals (45 percent), 15 of 25 free throws (60 percent), 28 rebounds, nine turnovers.Madison: 26 of 41 field goals (63 percent), 11 of 15 free throws (73 percent), 20 rebounds, 10 turnovers.
