By John RittenhouseThe Luverne girls’ basketball team snapped a six-game losing skid with a five-point victory at Edgerton Public School Monday.The skid reached six games with an overtime loss at home to Fulda Friday.Luverne, 4-11 overall, hosts Marshall Friday.Luverne 48,Edgerton 43The Cardinals overcame some adversity to beat the Flying Dutchmen in Edgerton Monday.Playing the game without leading-scorer Maggie Kuhlman, who was involved in a car accident after Friday’s home game with Fulda, the Cardinals pulled together as a team to top Edgerton by five points."It was nice to see some of the other kids step up and pick up some of the scoring for Maggie," said Cardinal coach Jason Phelps. "That says a lot about these girls."After falling behind 10-7 in the first quarter, Luverne’s Samantha Gacke scored seven points in the second period to help the Cards outscore EHS 15-9 and take a 22-19 halftime lead.Luverne extended its lead to seven points (37-30) by the end of the third quarter. Edgerton closed the gap to three points late in the fourth quarter before Tori Snyder, who led LHS with 12 points, canned a pair of free throws to ice the game.Mindy Nieuwboer and Danielle Loosbrock added nine and seven rebounds respectively to the winning cause. Marissa Stewart contributed four assists.Box scoreWilliams 1 1 0-0 5, Heitkamp 0 0 0-0 0, Boomgaarden 1 0 2-3 4, Nieuwboer 1 1 1-3 6, Snyder 5 0 2-2 12, Stewart 3 0 2-3 8, Gacke 4 0 1-2 9, Evans 1 0 0-0 2, Loosbrock 1 0 0-0 2.Team statisticsLuverne: 19 of 47 field goals (40 percent), eight of 13 free throws (62 percent), 28 rebounds, 13 turnovers.Edgerton: 17 of 57 field goals (30 percent), nine of 16 free throws (56 percent), 30 rebounds, 16 turnovers.Fulda 49, Luverne 41The Cardinals nearly pulled off a big upset when they entertained the Raiders for a non-conference game Friday in Luverne.Luverne led Fulda, the state’s seventh-ranked Class 1A team, by six points with less than three minutes remaining in regulation play. The Raiders, however, battled back to tie the game before the fourth quarter was complete and won it by outscoring LHS 12-4 in overtime.Luverne took a 31-28 lead into the fourth quarter and appeared to be in a position to win the game when Nieuwboer turned a steal into a layup that gave the Cards a 37-31 advantage with 3:03 left in the fourth quarter.The Raiders countered with a 6-0 run that ended with a field goal by Abby Oakland with 48 seconds remaining to tie the game at 37 and force overtime.Luverne led 39-38 when Loosbrock drained a field goal 20 seconds into the overtime session. Fulda, which made eight free throws in overtime, outscored the Cards 11-2 the rest of the way to prevail by eight.The Cardinals led by as many as four points in the first two quarters before settling for one-point (9-8 and 20-19) cushions at the first two quarter breaks.The score was tied at 22 in the third quarter when Luverne went on a 9-0 run capped by a field goal from Loosbrock with 4:04 remaining to give LHS its biggest lead of the game at 31-22. Fulda scored the final six points of the quarter to trail 31-28 heading into the fourth quarter.Kuhlman led the Cards with 11 points. Kuhlman and Stewart grabbed six rebounds each, and Kuhlman and Nieuwboer charted five steals each. Nieuwboer contributed four assists and Loosbrock four rebounds to Luverne’s cause.Box scoreWilliams 0 0 0-0 0, Heitkamp 0 0 0-0 0, Boomgaarden 2 0 0-0 4, Nieuwboer 3 0 0-0 6, Snyder 2 0 2-2 6, Kuhlman 2 2 1-2 11, Stewart 2 0 0-2 4, Gacke 1 0 0-0 2, Evans 0 0 0-0 0, Loosbrock 4 0 0-0 8.Team statisticsLuverne: 18 of 63 field goals (29 percent), three of six free throws (50 percent), 30 rebounds, 19 turnovers.Fulda: 17 of 58 field goals (29 percent), 13 of 24 free throws (54 percent), 38 rebounds, 20 turnovers.
