By Mark HaugenTom Rops wasn’t expecting it at the start of the season, but the coach and his Cardinal boys basketball team are enjoying a 5-0 start this season.It’s the best start to a season in the eight years Rops has coached Luverne. The Cardinals used wins last week over Pipestone, Southwest Christian and Worthington to boost their mark and move atop the Southwest Conference standings at 2-0."We have to be humble right now, because the regular season is important but doesn’t mean a whole lot as our goals are postseason goals more so than regular season goals," Rops said.Luverne will be on the road this week playing MCC on Saturday and Edgerton on Monday.Luverne 65,Pipestone 59 OTThe Cardinals handed Pipestone its first loss of the year as Dusty Antoine hit some key free throws in overtime and Jared Pick a timely 3-pointer.Luverne had five players score in double figures: Antoine 14, Pick 12 and Brandon Deragisch, Nick Heronimus and Jake Hendricks with 11 each. Deragisch led with seven rebounds, while Pick had five steals."Again our balance was the key," Coach Rops said. "We started the game slow but kept fighting."Luverne Box ScorePick 2 8-13 12, Deragisch 1 3 0-2 11, Tofteland 3 0-0 6, Heronimus 5 1-2 11, Hendricks 0 2 5-12 11, Antoine 0 3 5-6 14.Team Totals:Rebounds: L 21 (Deragisch 7), P 23. Turnovers: L 18, P 17.Luverne 44, SWC 37LHS built a 40-25 lead and held on for their fourth-straight victory.Another balanced offensive attack was paced by Pick with 10 points. Deragisch had nine points, six steals and five rebounds. The Cardinals forced 23 turnovers and led 20-15 at halftime in the low-scoring game."We were pretty tired after the night before and didn’t shoot well in the first half," Rops said. "We changed the offense a bit in the second half and got some better shots. We went from motion to the flex and seemed to get a little better look at the basket."We handled their up-tempo type of game OK and squeaked out a victory."Luverne Box ScorePick 4 2-8 10, Deragisch 3 3-3 9, Tofteland 0 1-2 1, Heronimus 1 3-5 5, Hendricks 1 1 3-5 8, Antoine 2 1 2-2 9.Team Totals:Rebounds: L 22, (Deragisch 5), SWC 19. Turnovers: L 16, SWC 23.Luverne 55,Worthington 47Luverne struggled in the first quarter (trailing 11-16) before outscoring the Trojans 17-5 in the second to take a 28-21 halftime lead it never relinquished. Starter Brad Herman didn’t play due to illness."So the other six guys who played really stepped up, boxed out and hung together when they easily could have used that as an excuse to take the night off," Rops said. Pick paced the Cardinals with 15 points, while Heronimus had 14."Jared probably had his best game of the year. He stepped up," Rops said. "Nick really had a good game too. Things got a little tighter in the third quarter and it seemed somebody made a play when we needed one."Luverne had only nine turnovers in the game, four in the first quarter.Luverne Box ScorePick 6 3-3 15, Deragisch 5 3-3 14, Tofteland 2 2-2 6, Heronimus 3 8-10 14, Hendricks 2 1 0-0 7, Antoine 0 0-0 0.Team Totals:Rebounds: L 16, W 16. Turnovers: L 9, W 19. FG shooting: L 19-46, W 17-38.