By John RittenhouseLuverne didn’t make all of the free throws it shot during Thursday’s South Section 3AA Boys Basketball Tournament game against Renville County West in Luverne.The Cardinals, however, made some charity shots when they counted the most.Luverne cashed in on eight of 14 free throws in overtime to lead the Cardinals to a 66-60 victory over the Jaguars in a thrilling semifinal-round game played in front of one of the biggest crowds to witness a game in the Elementary School gym.The win, which upped Luverne’s record to 17-8, sent the Cardinals to their first postseason title game since 1996. The Cards played Pipestone in the section championship game at Southwest State University in Marshall Saturday. Look for the game story on the front page of the sports section.For the most part, Luverne struggled at the free-throw line during the game against the Jaguars. By going 17 of 32 (53 percent) at the stripe for the night, the Cards squandered an opportunity to put RCW away in regulation play. Led by a five-of-six effort from senior guard Brandon Deragisch in overtime, the Cards outscored the Jaguars 12-6 in the final four minutes to seal a six-point victory."We did a good job of getting to the free-throw line," said LHS coach Tom Rops. "Unfortunately, free-throw shooting is our Achilles heel right now."In the end, Luverne outscored RCW 17-6 at the charity stripe to settle the issue.The game was tied at 44 entering the fourth quarter, and the Cards trailed by one before Brad Herman converted a field goal at the 4:22 mark to cap a 4-0 spurt and give the hosts a 50-47 lead. RCW regained a pair of two-point leads late in the fourth quarter, but LHS senior John Tofteland hit a field goal at 1:28 to tie the game at 52 and converted a reverse layup with 35 seconds remaining to knot the score at 54.Luverne gained possession of the ball after an RCW turnover with 27 seconds remaining in regulation play. The Cards, however, couldn’t put the game away as Tofteland couldn’t convert a running shot in the lane with four seconds left, and Deragisch couldn’t drain a three-point attempt at the buzzer.Both seniors gained redemption in the first minute of overtime. Tofteland turned a steal into a layup at 3:44 and Deragisch banked home a shot 12 seconds later to give the Cards a 58-54 lead. RCW trimmed the difference to two points on two occasions as overtime progressed, but Deragisch made five free throws, Nick Heronimus added two and Tofteland chipped in another in the final 1:52 to ice the win for LHS.Although Heronimus, a junior, made a key contribution by scoring 13 points, Rops said the play of seniors Deragisch (25 points, four steals and three assists), Tofteland (15 points) and Herman (10 points and eight rebounds) set the stage for victory."I was happy with the way our seniors played. We could have thrown in the towel when we fell behind early, but one of them always was able to make a play when we were down. Our seniors are our leaders, and they will carry us the rest of the way," he said.Luverne fell behind 9-4 early in the first quarter before ending the period with a 7-2 run capped by a field goal from Tofteland with four seconds remaining to tie the game at 11.Deragisch hit a three at the 6:07 mark of the second quarter to give the Cards their biggest lead (19-15) at that point of the game, but RCW countered with a 10-1 run to open a five-point lead (25-20) that swelled to six points (31-25) late in the quarter.Luverne, which trailed by five (33-28) at halftime, faced its biggest deficit of the game (35-28) when RCW scored the first two points of the third quarter. Deragisch scored eight straight points in a span of 2:01 late in the period to give the Cards a 44-42 lead with 40.2 seconds remaining, but a pair of free throws by RCW with 1.5 seconds left tied the game at 44.The most impressive thing about the win was the fact that the Cards were able to prevail without the services of senior Jared Pick, who watched the game from the bench in street clothes. Pick injured his back at home the night before the game."We got some bad news when we found out Jared couldn’t play early in the day (Thursday)," Rops said. "It threw off our regular rotation, but we were able to make enough plays without him to pull out a close win."Box scoreHerman 4 0 2-5 10, Deragisch 4 3 8-11 25, Hendricks 0 0 1-2 1, Antoine 0 0 0-0 0, Tofteland 7 0 1-4 15, Boelman 0 0 2-2 2, Heronimus 2 2 3-9 13.Team statisticsLuverne: 22 of 50 field goals (44 percent), 17 of 32 free throws (53 percent), 33 rebounds, nine turnovers.RCW: 25 of 57 field goals (44 percent), six of 10 free throws (60 percent), 30 rebounds, 15 turnovers.