Members of the Luverne High School girls’ basketball team gather around head coach Jason Phelps during a break in the action in Friday’s Cardinal Holiday Classic game against Canby. Luverne defeated the Lancers and came back the next night to defeat Westbrook-Walnut Grove to win the tournament title for the first time in the event’s five-year history. Photo by Lori Ehde.
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne girls’ basketball team won its own holiday tournament title for the first time in the event’s five-year history by winning back-to-back games Friday and Saturday.
The Cardinals snapped a six-game losing streak to start the season by rolling to a 27-point victory over Sleepy Eye in Friday’s opener.
Luverne followed its first win by stunning Westbrook-Walnut Grove by six points in Saturday’s championship game.
The wins give the Cards a 2-6 record heading into the 2003 portion of their schedule. Luverne hosts Redwood Valley Friday before traveling to Windom Tuesday.
Luverne 50, W-WG 44
The Cardinals shocked basketball fans throughout Southwest Minnesota when they topped the Chargers by six points in Saturday’s championship game of the Cardinal Holiday Classic.
W-WG entered the game with a perfect 8-0 record, but Luverne rallied from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter by outscoring the Chargers 20-4 in the final eight minutes of play to prevail by six.
"We did a good job of pressuring their guards in the fourth quarter," said Cardinal coach Jason Phelps, a graduate of W-WG High School.
"Our defensive pressure and our rebounding were the keys in this game."
Luverne’s play under pressure in the fourth quarter was another key.
The Cardinals faced a 40-30 deficit heading into the final stanza, but an 11-0 run featuring points from five different players gave the Cards an unlikely 41-40 edge.
W-WG regained the lead as the period progressed, but Cardinal guard Maggie Kuhlman gave LHS the lead for good when she converted a field goal with 50 seconds remaining. Kuhlman and Krista Wynia drained two free throws each in the final minute to put the game out of reach.
Luverne got off to a good start by outscoring the Chargers 12-7 in the first quarter, but W-WG countered with a 20-5 scoring advantage in the second period to gain a 27-17 halftime lead.
Both teams scored 13 points in the third quarter before the Cards clinched their first holiday tournament title with their fourth-quarter rally.
Kuhlman, who scored a season-high 22 points for the winners, led LHS with five steals and four assists.
Danielle Loosbrock pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds for the Cards. Tera Boomgaarden and Serena Franken added four and three steals respectively to Luverne’s most impressive effort of the season.
"I thought we played very well defensively," Phelps said. "We made some of the same mistakes we have been making all year on offense, but we had our best defensive and rebounding game of the season by far this year."
Box score
Williams 1 0 0-0 2, Kuhlman 4 4 2-3 22, Boomgaarden 2 0 0-0 4, Tofteland 0 0 4-8 4, Klosterbuer 0 0 0-0 0, Franken 3 0 0-0 6, Stewart 0 0 0-0 0, Wynia 3 0 2-2 8, Looosbrock 2 0 0-0 4.
Team statistics
Luverne: 19 of 49 field goals (39 percent), nine of 13 free throws (69 percent), 30 rebounds, 24 turnovers.
W-WG: Field goals unavailable, 11 of 29 free throws (38 percent), 20 rebounds, 20 turnovers.
Luverne 61, SE 34
The Cardinals broke into the win column for the first time this season when they strolled to a 27-point victory over Sleepy Eye in Friday’s tournament opener.
Luverne displayed a physical style of play that had been missing in the six-game losing streak to start the season, and Phelps said that was the key to victory.
"We were more physical in this game than we had been all year. Our aggressiveness helped us get to the free-throw line. We shot 23 free throws in the game, which was the most free throws we’ve shot in one game this season."
The Cards stumbled out of gate as SE scored the game’s first eight points, but LHS regrouped to outscore the visitors 17-4 the rest of the first quarter to sport a 17-12 lead at period’s end.
With Kuhlman leading the way by scoring seven of her team-high 13 points in the second quarter,
Luverne expanded its lead to 14 points by halftime (34-20) after outscoring SE 17-8 in the stanza.
Any thoughts of a second-half rally by SE were erased when the Cardinals scored the first nine points of the third period to open a 43-20 advantage.
SE did trim the difference to 19 points (47-28) by the end of the third quarter, but the Cards outscored SE 14-6 in the final period to prevail by 27 points.
"One of the big differences was we made eight of nine free throws in the second half. They went to the line nine times in the game and didn’t make one," Phelps added.
Rachel Tofteland came up big for LHS in the second half by scoring eight of her 12 points in the third and fourth quarters.
Loosbrock snared 10 rebounds for the winners. Franken registered four steals.
Box score
Williams 2 1 0-0 7, Kuhlman 2 2 3-5 13, Boomgaarden 3 0 0-0 6, Tofteland 4 0 4-5 12, Klosterbuer 0 0 0-1 0, Franken 2 0 0-0 4, Stewart 1 1 4-6 9, Wynia 3 0 0-2 6, Loosbrock 2 0 0-4 4.
Team statistics
Luverne: 22 of 70 field goals (31 percent), 11 of 23 free throws (48 percent), 42 rebounds, 20 turnovers.
SE: Field goals were unavailable, zero of nine free throws (zero percent), 27 rebounds, 25 turnovers.