By John RittenhouseAfter watching his Cardinals struggle at the free-throw line during the first two games of the South Section 3AA Boys Basketball Tournament, Luverne coach Tom Rops knew something had to change.In order to be successful in Saturday’s championship game against Pipestone at Southwest State University in Marshall, Rops identified improved shooting from the line as one of the keys to victory against the Arrows.The way things turned out, the Cardinals met the challenge in a big way.After making a sloppy 50 percent (32 of 64) of their charity shots in the first two postseason games, the Cards cashed in on 72 percent (23 of 32) of their charity shots from the Arrows. And it was Luverne’s success at the line that carried the Cardinals to a 46-37 victory over rival Pipestone."The kids knew we had to do a better job at the free-throw line. Fortunately for us, we were able to do that," Rops said.The win gave the Cards their first South Section 3AA championship in school history and the first post-season tournament title since 1996. Luverne advances to tonight’s Section 3AA championship game at SSU. The 18-8 Cardinals play 22-3 Benson, the top-seeded team from the north half of the section, at 8 p.m.Luverne received a boost of confidence before Saturday’s championship game against the Arrows started. Senior Jared Pick, who was unable to dress for Thursday’s semifinals due to back spasms, was fit enough to return to the starting line-up. Pick made his presence felt immediately by converting a three-point play 40 seconds into the game to give the Cards an early lead."Having Jared back on the floor was important to us both physically and psychologically. The kids knew he was there, and that was important," Rops said.Pipestone scored the next six points after Pick’s three-point play, but the Cards ended the quarter with a 9-0 run capped by two free throws from Nick Heronimus with 14.9 seconds remaining to give LHS a 12-6 cushion.The Arrows scored the first two points of the second quarter before Luverne received three-point shots from Heronimus and Brandon Deragisch to gain an 18-8 advantage at the 4:13 mark of the period.The Arrows trimmed the difference to six points (20-14), and they appeared to be happy with the position they were in when they let Luverne hold the ball for more than a minute before putting up the last shot of the first half. Deragish made Pipestone pay for that decision by nailing a three-point shot with six seconds left to give his team a 23-14 lead.Deragisch, who led the Cards with 19 points in the contest, came up with the game’s biggest play after Pipestone scored the first five points of the third quarter to trail 23-19.With 2:56 remaining in the stanza, Deragisch drained a three-point shot and was fouled in the act of shooting. Deragisch made his free throw to complete a four-point play and sank two more charity shots with 4.2 seconds left in the quarter to give the Cards a 32-21 lead."Brandon hit two huge shots for us," Rops said. "His three-pointer right before halftime was big, and his four-point play took the momentum away from Pipestone after they pulled to within four points."The Arrows were unable to offer the Cards a serious challenge in the fourth quarter. Pipestone did trim the difference to seven points (35-28) with 2:29 left to play. Luverne, however, made 11 of 16 free throws in the final 1:41 to ice a nine-point victory."This was a big win for our program, and I give all the credit to the seven kids who played tonight (Saturday)," Rops said. "As a coach, all you can do is try and put the kids in a position where they can be successful. But it’s up to the kids to knock down the shots, and they did that. Give the credit to the kids because all seven of them did what was asked of them tonight."Box scorePick 1 0 1-1 3, Herman 0 0 0-1 0, Deragisch 2 3 6-8 19, Hendricks 0 1 1-2 4, Antoine 1 0 3-4 5, Tofteland 0 0 6-8 6, Heronimus 1 0 6-8 9.Team statisticsLuverne: nine of 20 field goals (45 percent), 23 of 32 free throws (72 percent), 14 rebounds, eight turnovers.Pipestone: 14 of 27 field goals (52 percent), eight of 10 free throws (80 percent), 22 rebounds, 17 turnovers.
