By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne girls put an end to an eight-game basketball losing streak by ambushing Southwest Christian by six points in Luverne Tuesday.
The Cards lost their eighth straight tilt by 13 points in Pipestone Thursday.
Luverne, 3-14 overall, host Redwood Valley tonight before playing in Adrian Monday.
Luverne 55, SWC 49
The Cardinals were able to recover from a slow start to upend the E-Gals in Luverne Tuesday.
Trailing 12-2 early in the first quarter, things didnÕt look good for the home-standing Cards. Luverne, however, rallied to outscore SWC 53-37 the rest of the way to post a six-point victory.
"We played a lot of good basketball after that slow start," said Cardinal coach Jason Phelps. "A lot of the things we've been working on all season came together Tuesday."
After falling behind by 10 points early, the Cardinals went on a 12-4 run to trim SWC's lead to two points (16-14) by the end of the first quarter.
Luverne moved in front by two points in the second quarter and took a 33-28 lead at the intermission when Maggie Kuhlman hit a three-point shot right before halftime.
The Cards led by three points (42-39) after the third quarter before prevailing by five in the end.
Patricia Willers led LHS with 12 points and nine rebounds. Kuhlman had five assists.
Box score
Kuhlman 3 1 0-0 9, Lange 2 0 2-3 6, Pick 4 0 0-4 8, Top 4 0 0-3 8, P.Willers 4 0 4-6 12, S.Willers 1 0 0-0 2, Bush 0 0 2-4 2, Kopp 4 0 0-0 8.
Team statistics
Luverne: 23 of 56 field goals (41 percent), eight of 20 free throws (40 percent), 28 rebounds, 14 turnovers.
SWC: 18 of 58 field goals (31 percent), 10 of 21 free throws (48 percent), 17 rebounds, seven turnovers.
P-J 52, Luverne 39
The Cardinal girls scared the home-standing Arrows before falling by 13 points in Pipestone Thursday.
P-J, a team that lost two games overall entering the tilt, found itself facing 14-12 and 24-18 deficits at the first two quarter breaks and tied at 30 after the third quarter.
By making some defensive adjustments that confused the Cardinals in the fourth quarter, P-J outscored LHS 22-9 to win by 13.
"We lost our composure in the fourth quarter," said Cardinal coach Phelps. "They switched to a full-court press and fell back into a half-court man-to-man defense, and we didn't adjust to it very well. We were turning the ball over a lot, and they were nine-of-nine at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter."
Luverne's Sarah Lange scored all 12 of her points while carrying the Cards to a two-point lead in the first quarter. Luverne led by as many as 10 points in the second period before settling for a six-point halftime cushion.
Patricia Willers recorded a double-double for LHS by scoring 10 points and racking up 10 rebounds. Maggie Kuhlman had four assists for the Cards.
Box score
Kuhlman 0 1 0-2 3, Croft 1 0 0-0 2, Lange 6 0 0-2 12, Pick 1 0 0-0 2, Top 0 1 0-2 3, P.Willers 4 0 2-3 10, S.Willers 1 0 1-1 3, Tofteland 1 0 0-0 2, Bush 0 0 0-0 0, Kopp 0 0 2-2 2.
Team statistics
Luverne: 16 of 42 field goals (38 percent), five of 12 free throws (42 percent), 29 rebounds, 32 turnovers.
P-J: Field goal totals were unavailable, 14 of 20 free throws (70 percent, 19 rebounds, nine turnovers.