Luverne senior Aaron Schmidt (22) drives around Fulda’s 6-6 forward Dan Hup during Tuesday’s boys’ basketball game in Luverne. The Raiders handed the Cardinals a 62-31 setback in Luverne’s season opener.
By John Rittenhouse
The Fulda Raiders spoiled Luverne’s season-opening boys’ basketball game by rolling to a 62-31 win over the Cardinals in Luverne Tuesday.
The game started in a promising way for LHS when senior Joey Pick drained a field goal to give the Cards a 2-0 lead, but Fulda stole the momentum by reeling off 21 straight points to take control of the game for the rest of the night.
With a pair of 6-6 posts starting for the Raiders, Luverne simply couldn’t stop Fulda’s inside game.
"I think their size kind of shocked us," said Cardinal coach Tom Rops. "It’s hard to simulate playing against tall kids like that in practice. They were much more physical than we were, and we didn’t play well the entire game."
Fulda’s 21-0 run led the Raiders to a 25-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Luverne trimmed the difference to 16 points (25-9) early in the second quarter before being outscored 8-5 the rest of the period, which ended with the hosts facing a 33-14 deficit.
The Cards trailed by 17 points twice early in the third period and were down by 15 (35-20) when Jake Studer buried a field goal at the 3:53 mark, but the Raiders scored the final six points of the stanza to lead 41-20 at the quarter break.
Fulda outscored the Cards 21-11 in the fourth quarter to prevail by 31 points in the end.
"I thought we would be much more competitive than we were," said a disappointed Rops. "We didn’t do anything we needed to do to be competitive in this game."
Studer led the Cards with 11 points and three steals. Jesse Kuhlman and Andy Stegemann nabbed four rebounds each.
The 0-1 Cards play in Pipestone Friday before hosting Worthington Tuesday.
Box score
Studer 5 0 1-3 11, Pick 1 0 0-0 2, Kuhlman 1 1 0-0 5, Schmidt 1 0 0-0 2, Stegemann 1 2 0-0 8, Deragisch 0 0 0-1 0, Boelman 1 0 0-0 2.
Team statistics
Luverne: 11 of 44 field goals (25 percent), two of six free throws (33 percent), 17 rebounds, 10 turnovers.
Fulda: 28 of 60 field goals (47 percent), one of seven free throws (14 percent), 39 rebounds, 10 turnovers.