By John RittenhouseThe Luverne boys reeled off two straight wins to capture the championship of the Luverne Cardinal Basketball Holiday Classic late last week.Luverne survived a triple-overtime scare to best Southwest Star Concept by six points during Thursday’s opener. The Cards won the title with a five-point victory over Lake Benton Friday.Luverne, 9-0 overall, plays in Redwood Falls Friday before hosting Lennox, S.D., Tuesday.Luverne 68, LB 63The Cardinals overcame a rough start to best the Bobcats by five points during Friday’s title tilt.After falling behind 15-5 in the first 6:29 of the game, Luverne battled back to outscore LB 63-48 the rest of the night to secure the championship.Luverne’s comeback started late in the first half, when reserve post Andrew DeBoer came off the bench to score eight consecutive points and knot the score at 24 with 4:33 remaining.A three-point play by Marc Boelman gave the Cards their first lead at the 2:16 mark of the first half, and Derek Boeve extended the difference to six points (35-29) with 53 seconds remaining before LB scored the final two points of the half to trail 25-31.Jake Hendricks, who hit five three-point shots and scored all 18 of his points in the second half, buried a pair of threes in the first minute of the second half to give the Cards a 41-31 advantage. Luverne led by 13 (54-41) when Hendricks canned a three at the 10:15 mark of the half before LB trimmed the difference to five with a three in the final seconds of the contest.Boelman and Boeve finished the game with 17 and 13 points respectively. Nick Heronimus and Jake Clark collected six rebounds each. Boeve and Hendricks contributed six and four assists to the winning cause.Box scoreBoelman 6 0 5-6 17, Miller 1 0 0-0 2, Hendricks 0 5 3-8 18, Clark 0 2 1-2 7, Boeve 5 1 0-0 13, DeBoer 4 0 0-0 8, Heronimus 1 0 0-0 2.Team statisticsLuverne: 25 of 45 field goals (56 percent), nine of 16 free throws (56 percent), 23 rebounds, 12 turnovers.LB: 26 of 55 field goals (47 percent), three of six free throws (50 percent), 16 rebounds, 13 turnovers.Luverne 60, SSC 54The Cardinals faced the prospect of receiving their first loss of the season before winning a triple-overtime thriller against the Quasars during Thursday’s tournament opener.Luverne, which trailed 25-23 at halftime, battled back to tie the game at 48 before regulation play was complete.The Cards matched SCC’s scoring output in the first two overtime sessions before outscoring the Quasars 6-0 in the third overtime to notch a 48-minute, six-point win."We didn’t play our best basketball," said Cardinal coach Tom Rops."This was a hard game to get motivated for, and I think that showed. Give SSC credit because it controlled the tempo, handled our pressure and was able to get the ball inside to make it a close game."The Quasars led by seven points with less than seven minutes remaining in the second half before the Cards came storming back to move in front 47-46 with a steal and a layup from Jake Clark.The Cards led 48-46 before SSC’s 6-9 junior post James Granstra tied the game with a field goal with 16 seconds remaining.Luverne, which led 50-48 in the first overtime, appeared to be in trouble with the score tied at 50 late in the session.The Cards were holding the ball for a final shot when Coach Rops was whistled for a technical foul after touching the arm of one of his players when the game was in progress. SSC’s Trevor Leopold drained both free throws resulting from the technical foul to give the Quasars a 52-50 edge with 21 seconds remaining, but Luverne stole SSC’s ensuing in-bound pass to set up a game-tying field goal by Marc Boelman with 11 seconds left.Luverne’s Jake Hendricks came up with another steal after Boelman’s basket, but the Cards missed two free throws with 1.4 seconds remaining to force a second overtime.Andrew DeBoer gave the Cards a 54-52 lead at the 2:28 mark of the second overtime after turning an offensive rebound into a field goal. SSC tied the game moments later, and a third overtime was needed when the Cards missed a last-second shot to end the second overtime.The game’s momentum favored Luverne when DeBoer drew Granstra’s fifth personal foul with 3:15 remaining in the third overtime.DeBoer sank one of two free throws to give the Cards the lead, and Clark hit a field goal with 1:14 remaining to make it a 57-54 game. Hendricks hit one charity shot and Boelman added two more in the final 30 seconds of the game to ice a six-point win for LHS.Hendricks led the Cards with 19 points and six steals in the game. Derek Boeve netted 11 points and recorded four steals. Clark scored 11 points and Nick Heronimus pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.Box scoreBoelman 2 0 5-5 9, Miller 0 1 0-0 3, Hendricks 3 3 4-6 19, Clark 3 1 2-211, Boeve 1 2 3-4 11, DeBoer 1 0 1-2 3, Heronimus 2 0 0-3 4.Team statisticsLuverne: 19 of 61 field goals (31 percent), 15 of 24 free throws (63 percent), 27 rebounds, 11 turnovers.SSC: 22 of 48 field goals (46 percent), nine of 11 free throws (82 percent), 24 rebounds, 18 turnovers.