By John RittenhouseThe Luverne boys’ basketball team locked up second place in the Southwest Conference after splitting a pair of home games.After falling to league champion Marshall by seven points Thursday, Luverne completed its 9-3 league season with a 12-point victory over Jackson County Central.The 16-6 Cardinals end the regular season by hosting Murray County Central tonight.Luverne 81, JCC 69A big night from Marc Boelman carried the Cardinals to their ninth conference win of the season Tuesday in Luverne.With Boelman scoring a team-high 29 points to lead the way, Luverne pulled away from JCC late in the game to secure a 12-point victory.Along with Boelman’s effort, the Cardinals received some much-needed offensive punch from Andrew DeBoer and Jake Clark, who chipped in 14 and 11 points respectively."We were able to get the ball inside to Marc most of the night, and he did a good job of finishing his shots," said Cardinal coach Tom Rops."It was nice to get that type of offensive production out of DeBoer and Clark, too."Luverne overcame some good shooting by the Huskies in the first half to gain a 40-36 lead at the break. The Cards outscored JCC 41-33 in the second half to ice the win.Jake Hendricks scored 10 points and charted five assists for the winners. Derek Boeve added 10 points and two blocked shots.Box scoreBoelman 10 0 9-11 29, Hendricks 2 1 3-4 10, Clark 4 1 0-0 11, Sawtelle 1 0 0-0 2, Boeve 2 2 0-2 10, DeBoer 4 2 0-1 14, Heronimus 1 0 2-2 4, Ward 0 0 0-1 0, Miller 0 0 1-2 1.Team statisticsLuverne: 30 of 58 field goals (51 percent), 15 of 23 free throws (65 percent), 28 rebounds, six turnovers.JCC: 27 of 54 field goals (50 percent), five of nine free throws (55 percent), 17 rebounds, 13 turnovers.Marshall 65, Luverne 58The Cardinals nearly accomplished something no other conference team has in the last two seasons in Luverne Thursday.Luverne was in a position to hand the Marshall Tigers their first league loss in two seasons late in the second half, but the Tigers cashed in on six free throws in the final 2:30 of the game to help pull out a seven-point victory.The Cardinals appeared to be in trouble when Marshall scored the first six points of the second half to open a 44-28 lead with 15:10 remaining.Luverne, however, countered with a 27-12 run and trailed by one point (56-55) when Boelman drained a pair of free throws with 2:41 left to play.After Marshall extended its lead to six points at 61-55, Luverne’s Hendricks hit a three-point shot with 31 seconds left to make it a three-point difference (61-58). The Tigers then hit four free throws in the final seconds to win by seven."I was happy we were able to comeback against Marshall," said LHS coach Rops."I was proud of the kids because they didn’t give up after being down. If we would have made a few more free throws, I think we could have beat them."Free throws did settle the issue. Marshall went 17 of 20 from the line. Luverne was 19 of 38.Luverne, which scored the first point of the game for its only lead in the contest, trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half before trailing 38-38 at halftime.Boeve led the Cards with 22 points. Boelman chipped in 11 points. Clark and Nick Heronimus collected seven and six rebounds respectively. Hendricks recorded five assists and Tim Miller had three steals.Box scoreWard 0 0 0-0 0, Haakenson 0 0 0-0 0, Boelman 4 0 3-8 11, Miller 1 0 0-0 2, Hendricks 2 1 0-2 7, Boeve 1 3 11-17 22, DeBoer 0 1 2-3 5, Heronimus 1 0 2-5 4, Clark 3 0 1-2 7.Team statisticsLuverne: 17 of 54 field goals (31 percent), 19 of 58 free throws (50 percent), 29 rebounds, 13 turnovers.Marshall: 21 of 51 field goals (41 percent), 17 of 20 free throws (85 percent), 26 rebounds, 15 turnovers.