“Even though we lost, that was as proud of this team as I have been all year.”
That's how Luverne head girls’ basketball coach TJ Newgard summarized his team’s 56-53 loss to Marshall at home Friday night.
The Tigers, 13-4 on the season and undefeated (7-0) in the Big South Conference, dominated much of the first half of the game and took what appeared to be a commanding 36-19 lead to the locker room at halftime.
“We got down early by making silly mistakes on both ends of the floor,” Newgard said.
In the second half, Luverne was down by as much as 20 points (54-34) with nine minutes remaining before the Cardinals started methodically cutting into the Tigers’ lead.
LHS scored eight consecutive points to trim the lead to 12 points (54-42) with five minutes on the clock.
A three-pointer by Christina Wagner with 3:30 remaining cut the Tigers’ lead to single digits, 54-45.
The Cardinal defense held Marshall at 54 points for nine minutes of game time. When Kira John made a three-point play (layup and successful foul shot), Luverne cut the lead to four points with 1:30 left in the game.
A long 3-pointer by Averill Sehr got the Cardinals to within one point (54-53) with 12 seconds on the clock.
The Tigers finally responded to put the score at 56-53 with two seconds remaining.
“Once we forgot who we were playing and started playing our game, we were able to climb back into it and give ourselves a chance to tie the game on the last possession,” Newgard said.
When Christina Wagner’s three-point attempt just missed, the Tigers escaped the Luverne Classic Gym with a 56-53 victory.
“The girls could have easily given up but that’s not who they are,” Newgard said.
“They just put their heads down and worked as hard as they could.”
Elizabeth Wagner led all scorers in the game with 18 points. John had 13 points.
Christina Wagner pulled in 12 rebounds.
The Cardinals, now 11-3 on the season, have a busy week ahead.
The team was scheduled to play in St. James Tuesday (Jan. 25) and will play away games at Redwood Valley Friday and Southwest Christian Tuesday before hosting Worthington on Feb. 3.
Box score:
C. Wagner 1 1 0-0 5, Beyer 3 0 1-2 7, Ver Steeg 3 0 0-0 6, Sehr 0 1 1-2 4, E. Wagner 9 0 0-0 18, Hart 0 0 0-0 0, John 5 0 3-3 13
Team stats:
Luverne: 23 of 41 (56 percent), 5 of 7 free throws (71 percent), 26 rebounds, 16 turnovers
Marshall: 18 of 52 (34 percent), 14 of 19 free throws (74 percent), 29 rebounds, 12 turnovers