Luverne senior post Danielle Loosbrock (45) battles for a rebound with Westbrook-Walnut Grove's Andrea Hannan (40) and Abby Knott (20) during the first round of the Luverne Girls' Basketball Holiday Classic Monday in Luverne.By John RittenhouseThe Luverne girls’ basketball lost an opportunity to successfully defend its 2002 title of the Luverne Holiday Classic during the opening round of the 2003 version of the event Monday night.The Cardinals took on Westbrook-Walnut Grove, the team they beat to win the tournament title last season, in the first round of the event in the Luverne High School gym.Luverne sported a seven-point lead early in the second half, but the Chargers rallied to outscore the hosts 29-18 the rest of the way to earn a 54-50 victory.The loss sent the 2-5 Cardinals into Tuesday’s third-place game against Granada-Huntley-East Chain. Luverne will play road games in Jackson Saturday and in Madison, S.D., Tuesday.Luverne and W-WG played a very competitive game in Monday’s semifinals. The Cards led by five points at halftime, but the Chargers bounced back to win by four in the second half.After falling behind 3-2 early in the first quarter, Luverne scored four straight points to lead 6-3 after Mindy Nieuwboer drained a field goal at the 5:50 mark of the period.W-WG countered with a 6-0 surge to gain a 9-6 advantage, but the Cards ended the half with a 6-3 spurt that ended with Marissa Stewart tying the game at 12 with a pair of free throws with 5.5 seconds remaining.The Chargers scored the first six points of the second quarter and led 20-15 as the period progressed before Luverne mounted a 10-0 run capped by a three-point shot from Maggie Kuhlman to gain a 25-20 cushion.Luverne led by eight (30-22) when Brittney Williams sank a three-point shot with 1:19 remaining in the first half, but the Chargers scored the final three points of the second period to trail 30-25 at the intermission.The Cards scored the first two points of the third quarter to sport a seven-point lead (32-25) that vanished when W-WG went on a 17-2 run to open a 42-34 advantage.Luverne countered with a 7-2 run that featured two free throws from Williams and a field goal by Tori Snyder in the final 27 seconds of the period to trail 44-41 heading into the final eight minutes of play.Kuhlman hit a three to trim the difference to two points (46-44) early in the fourth quarter and the Cards trailed by two (51-49) when Nieuwboer sank a three with 38 seconds remaining.W-WG, however, made three free throws in the final 36 seconds to win by four at game’s end.Kuhlman hit four three-point shots and led the Cards with 15 points. Nieuwboer finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. Danielle Loosbrock paced LHS with 12 rebounds.Box scoreWilliams 0 1 2-2 5, Heitkamp 1 0 1-3 3, Boomgaarden 0 0 0-0 0, Nieuwboer 4 1 0-0 11, Snyder 2 0 0-0 4, Kuhlman 1 4 1-2 15, Stewart 1 0 2-2 4, Gacke 1 0 0-0 2, Evans 0 0 0-0 0, Loosbrock 3 0 0-0 6, VanDeBerg 0 0 0-0 0.Team statisticsLuverne: 19 of 85 field goals (22 percent), six of nine free throws (67 percent), 33 rebounds, 11 turnovers.W-WG: 21 of 76 field goals (28 percent), eight of 17 free throws (47 percent), 30 rebounds, 16 turnovers.
