By John RittenhouseLuverne’s bid to capture its second consecutive Section 3A Boys’ Basketball Tournament title fell short Thursday at Southwest State University in Marshall.Playing the Benson Braves in a rematch of the 2005 championship tilt, the Cardinals couldn’t regain the magic that led them to a 59-50 victory one year ago. That was Luverne’s first berth in a state tournament in 22 years.Thursday’s game belonged to the Braves, who will make their first state tournament appearance since 1964 after recording a 67-52 victory over the Cardinals."I give Benson a lot of credit, because they have a very fine team," said Cardinal coach Tom Rops, who guided LHS to a 20-7 record this year."They shot the ball extremely well, they were very aggressive and they were able to make more plays than we were."Luverne is a solid team, too, and most of its success this season hinged on two things it did very well on the court.First of all, the Cardinals controlled the game’s tempo by being patient and taking care of the ball. Even more important, LHS is a defensive club.On Thursday, those factors didn’t come into play.Benson pressured the Cardinals throughout the contest, forcing LHS into 25 turnovers. The Braves also solved Luverne’s defensive scheme, making 56 percent of their field goals in the contest."The big thing was the pressure they put on us defensively," Rops said."They played a 2-1-2 defense, and it put a lot of pressure on our guards. It forced us to handle the ball well and make the correct passes to be successful, but we didn’t accomplish that. When we needed to attack their pressure, and when we did break it, we couldn’t finish our shots. As the game went on, their pressure wore us down."The Braves put some offensive pressure on the Cardinals early by scoring eight unanswered points in the first two minutes of the game.The Cardinals then found their legs and trimmed Benson’s lead to one point (11-10) with baskets by Weston Sawtelle at the 12:15 mark for the first half and from Marc Boelman (13-12) at 10:49.Senior Nick Heronimus gave the Cardinals what proved to be their only lead (14-13) of the game with a lay-in with 10:14 remaining in the first half.Benson scored the next four points before Sawtelle, who led the Cards with 18 points and three steals in the contest, hit a three-point shot to knot the score at 19 with 7:01 left to play.It was at that point when the Braves took control of the contest.Benson blanked the Cardinals over the final seven minutes of the first half, setting the stage for an 11-0 run that gave the Braves a 30-19 halftime advantage.After Benson scored the first two points of the second half, Boelman ended Luverne’s scoring lapse with a field goal at the 17:22, and Jake Clark turned an offensive rebound into a field goal at 16:58 to make it a nine-point (32-23) difference.The Braves dominated action over the next five minutes, putting together a 20-4 run ending with Dan Fragotdt draining a field goal with 12:03 left to play to make it a 52-27 game.Luverne did fight back and trimmed the difference to 14 points (57-43) when senior Jake Hendricks converted a layup with 5:57 remaining.The Cardinals, however, couldn’t inch any closer the rest of the way as the Braves outscored LHS 10-9 in the final 5:50 to win by 15."We just didn’t handle their pressure the way we wanted to," Rops said."They didn’t have speedy guards. They were tall and lanky guards who were tipping our passes, resulting in turnovers that led to some easy baskets for them. It was their length that hurt us more than their quickness did."The LHS coach said the Cardinals didn’t play their best basketball in the title tilt, but one game should not overshadow the season Luverne experienced this winter."I’m very proud of what this team accomplished," Rops said. "I know the kids feel bad now, because they were so close to getting where they wanted to go, then it all ends like this. They have to remember that we won 20 games this year, and I’m very proud of that."Box scoreBruynes 0 0 0-0 0, Ward 0 0 0-0 0, Haakenson 0 0 0-0 0, Boomgaarden 1 0 0-0 2, Boelman 2 0 1-2 5, Miller 1 0 0-0 2, Hendricks 1 1 0-0 5, Clark 2 0 1-2 5, Uphoff 0 0 0-0 0, Sawtelle 3 3 3-5 18, Stegemann 0 0 0-0 0, Boeve 3 0 1-1 7, DeBoer 0 0 0-0 0, Hoff 0 0 2-2 2, Heronimus 2 0 2-2 6.Team statisticsLuverne 19 of 52 field goals (37 percent), 10 of 14 free throws (71 percent), 23 rebounds, 25 turnovers.Benson: 32 of 57 field goals (56 percent), three of seven free throws (42 percent), 26 rebounds, 17 turnovers.