By Mark HaugenThe Luverne boys basketball team raised its record to 8-2 with a convincing 65-53 victory over Lake Benton on Tuesday night.Getting off to a sluggish start the Cardinals led only 8-7 after the first but rolled in the second by outscoring the Bobcats 25-11. Lake Benton didn’t come within nine the rest of the way."I thought we played pretty well in the second and third quarters and did not in the first and fourth," Coach Tom Rops said. "Luckily we had done enough in the middle two quarters to put the game away. They outworked us at times but we had more players."Brandon Deragisch led the Cardinals with 18 points, while Nick Heronimus and John Tofteland added 12 and 10, respectively. Brad Herman and Heronimus led with eight rebounds apiece and Dusty Antoine picked four steals.Luverne plays at Lincoln HI on Tuesday."I’m happy with where we’re at but we’re going to have to improve, especially against the good teams we are going to be seeing for the second time in the conference," Rops said. "We have to get more consistent. The Southwest Conference is a more physical style and we’ll have to match that with the other teams."Luverne won the "B" game 47-21 as every player scored, but none in double figures.Luverne Box ScorePick 2 0-0 4, Haakenson 1 0-0 2, Herman 3 0-0 6, Deragisch 4 2 44-5 18, Hendricks 1 1 0-4 5, Antoine 4 0-0 8, Tofteland 3 1 1-2 10, Heronimus 3 1 3-9 12.Team Totals:Rebounds: L 37 (Herman 8, Heronimus 8), LB 20. FG shooting: L 26-63, LB 19-41.
