Luverne senior forward Serena Franken contests a shot from Redwood Valley’s Kristin Malecha during Friday’s girls’ basketball game in Luverne. Luverne rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit to force overtime before falling to RWV by a 55-53 score.
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne girls’ basketball team came up empty in two attempts to post a Southwest Conference win since last Friday.
Redwood Valley nipped the Cardinals by two points in an overtime thriller in Luverne Friday. Luverne then lost a 25-point game in Windom Tuesday.
The 2-8 Cardinals host South Dakota teams Lennox and Madison tonight and Tuesday respectively. Luverne plays in St. James Saturday.
Windom 67,
Luverne 42
A dreadful start for the Cardinals led to a 25-point defeat during Tuesday’s game in Windom.
The Eagles raced to a 20-2 lead in the first quarter and LHS was unable to recover the rest of the night.
"They had a 20-2 lead right off the bat," said Cardinal coach Jason Phelps. "We did not have a great defensive effort, and we got off to a slow start offensively. It wasn’t a good game for us."
Luverne did trim the difference to 14 points (20-6) by the end of the first quarter, and LHS trailed 31-19 at halftime before Windom put the game away by going on a 19-7 run in the third quarter that gave the Eagles a 50-26 lead.
Windom then outscored the Cards 17-16 in the fourth quarter to win by 25.
Maggie Kuhlman led Luverne in scoring with 16 points.
Box score
Williams 1 1 1-2 6, Kuhlman 3 3 1-3 16, Boomgaarden 1 0 0-0 2, Tofteland 2 1 1-2 8, Franken 1 0 0-0 8, Stewart 0 0 0-2 0, Wynia 1 0 0-1 2, Loosbrock 2 0 2-4 6.
RWV 55, Luverne 53
The Cardinals made a bid to win their first Southwest Conference game of the season before dropping a two-point overtime decision to Redwood Valley Friday in Luverne.
Luverne, which trailed by 12 points at the intermission, put together an outstanding rally in second half to outscore RWV 32-20 and force overtime.
RWV, however, used a 6-4 scoring edge in the four-minute overtime session to snap what was a two-game winning streak for LHS.
An 11-2 run by RWV in the first 4:30 of the second quarter, the visitors took a 29-17 halftime lead. Luverne countered with a 15-1 run in the first 4:07 of the third quarter to take a 32-30 edge.
The run, which consisted of four points each from Tera Boomgaarden and Rachel Tofteland, three points from Kuhlman and two each from Serena Franken and Krista Wynia, was capped by a Boomgaarden field goal at the 3:53 mark of the stanza.
Although the momentum was in Luverne’s favor at that point, RWV put together a 5-0 run to end the period and take a 35-32 lead into the fourth quarter.
Luverne pulled within one point of RWV four times in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter and pulled in front 45-44 when Kuhlman drained a three-point shot with 3:11 left to play.
A field goal by Tofteland as the period progressed gave the Cards a 57-45 lead, but RWV moved in front 49-47 with 47 seconds remaining before Tofteland knotted the score at 49 with a field goal with 22 seconds left in regulation play.
RWV missed a last-second shot that could have settled the issue in regulation play, but the visitors never trailed in the overtime period.
Luverne tied the score at 50 with a free throw from Danielle Loosbrock at 2:12, at 52 with two free throws from Wynia with 38.3 seconds remaining, but RWV’s 4-2 scoring edge the rest of the way gave it a two-point win.
Tofteland registered a double-double for LHS by scoring 13 points and collecting 12 rebounds. Kuhlman finished the game with 12 points and six assists. Loosbrock had eight rebounds.
Box score
Williams 0 0 0-0 0, Kuhlman 3 2 0-0 12, Boomgaarden 3 0 0-0 6, Tofteland 5 0 3-4 13, Klosterbuer 2 0 0-0 4, Franken 4 0 0-0 8, Stewart 0 0 0-0 0, Wynia 2 0 2-4 6, Loosbrock 1 0 2-4 4.
Team statistics
Luverne: 22 of 62 field goals (35 percent), seven of 12 free throws (58 percent), 29 rebounds, 22 turnovers.
RWV: 12 of 61 field goals (20 percent), 30 of 44 free throws (68 percent),, 28 rebounds.