Luverne junior post Josh Lange drives to the basket past Redwood Valley’s Mike Karsky during Friday’s boys’ basketball game in Luverne. Lange scored six points during a 49-33 loss to RWV.
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne boys’ basketball team recorded its first Southwest Conference win in three seasons when it toppled Windom by 13 points in Luverne Tuesday.
The win came five days after a home loss to Redwood Valley on Friday.
Luverne, 2-7 overall, will try to win back-to-back games when it hosts Southwest Christian Friday before playing in Madison, S.D., Tuesday.
Luverne 57,
Windom 44
A drought that began in 2000 came to an end Tuesday night when the Cardinals posted a 13-point Southwest Conference win over the Eagles in Luverne Tuesday.
Luverne had not posted a league win since the 1999-2000 campaign, when Gordie Hansen was Luverne’s head coach.
The drought started during the first two years of current coach Tom Rops’ tenure, and he ended it after the Cardinals dropped their first four league games this year.
"I was a little emotional after the game," Rops admitted. "These kids, especially our seniors, have put in a lot of time and effort to win a game like this one. I’m just very proud of the way they stuck with it."
Luverne used a balanced-attack to snap the SWC losing skid against the Eagles as four Cardinals reached double figures in scoring.
Jake Studer and Joey Pick led the way by netting 14 and 13 points respectively. Jesse Kuhlman and Josh Lange added 12 and 10 counters to the winning tally.
Luverne doubled (16-8) Windom’s scoring output in the first quarter and led by 12 points (29-17) after outscoring the Eagles 13-9 in the second quarter.
The difference remained at 12 points (36-24) heading into the fourth quarter, when Windom offered a challenge by climbing to within four points of the Cards before LHS put the game away by making 12 of 14 free throws in the final eight minutes of play.
Aaron Schmidt and Pick pulled down nine and eight rebounds for LHS. Studer recorded five steals.
Box score
Studer 6 0 2-2 14, Kuhlman 2 2 2-3 12, Schmidt 1 0 6-6 8, Lange 3 0 4-4 10, Pick 0 3 4-7 13.
Team statistics
Luverne: 15 of 36 field goals (42 percent), 16 of 20 free throws (80 percent), 31 rebounds, 15 turnovers.
Windom: 14 of 51 field goals (27 percent), nine of 14 free throws (64 percent), 29 rebounds, 14 turnovers.
RWV 49, Luverne 33
The Cardinal boys were unable to break into the win column in Southwest Conference play when they fell by 16 points at home to Redwood Valley Friday.
Luverne played well enough to stay with RWV in the first half, but the visitors outscored the Cards 32-21 in the second half to win handily.
RWV turned a five-point cushion heading into the second half into a 10-point advantage (27-17) by outscoring the Cards 10-5 in the first five minutes of the stanza. A late three by RWV gave it a 32-19 advantage before the quarter was complete.
The Cards trimmed the difference to 11 points early in the fourth quarter, but that proved to be as close as they would come to catching RWV, which outscored LHS 17-14 in the period to win by 16.
RWV led 9-5 at one point in a tight first quarter before the Cards trimmed the difference to three points (11-8) at period’s end.
The Cards pulled to within two points of RWV in the second quarter, but a late three by the visitors made it a 17-12 game at the intermission.
Studer led Luverne with 11 points and three assists in the game. Scott Boelman snared five rebounds.
Box score
Studer 2 2 1-2 11, Pick 0 0 0-0 0, Kuhlman 0 2 0-0 6, Goembel 0 0 0-0 0, Roemen 0 0 0-0 0, Scmidt 1 0 2-3 4, Stegemann 0 0 0-0 0, DeWispelaere 0 0 0-0 0, DeGroot 2 0 0-0 4, Hulstein 0 0 0-0 0, Boelman 1 0 0-1 2, Lange 2 0 2-2 6.
Team statistics
Luverne: 11 of 37 field goals (30 percent), five of eight free throws (63 percent), 26 rebounds, 18 turnovers.
RWV: 17 of 43 field goals (40 percent), 11 of 15 free throws (73 percent), 25 rebounds.