By John RittenhouseThe 2004-05 Luverne Cardinals had a knack of shocking head coach Tom Rops all season, and they saved their biggest surprise for Saturday’s third-place game of the Minnesota State Class AA Boys Basketball Tournament in St. Paul.Taking on Rockford less than 15 hours after losing to Crookston in the semifinals, a surprisingly energized Luverne team rallied in the second half to post a 60-55 victory over the Rockets at Concordia University.Coach Rops was concerned about the physical and mental state of his team entering Saturday’s game. Thirty minutes after an 11-point loss to Crookston on Friday in Minneapolis’ Target Center, Rops said he thought his key players were worn down from playing the first two tournament games. At the same time, he wondered if the Cards would be able to recover from playing at 9 p.m. the night before to put on a good show during the third-place game at noon on Saturday.To the coach’s amazement, LHS met the challenge as well as it possibly could. The Cardinals played well enough to sport a lead for a good share of the first half before falling behind 28-23 at the intermission. Luverne rallied to outscore Rockford 37-27 in the second half to secure a five-point win in the third-place game."I have no idea where we got the energy from," Rops said minutes after Saturday’s clash. "The guys were running on empty. The enthusiasm the kids played with was absolutely outstanding."According to Brad Herman, one of five LHS seniors on the team, a sub-par performance wasn’t an option."We were a little tired after playing a 9 o’clock game the night before. We pulled together and came through," he said.Luverne’s resolve was tested early in the third quarter. After trimming Rockford’s five-point halftime lead to two points (28-26) in the first minute of the second half, the Cardinals found themselves trailing by eight (35-27) when the Rockets put together a 7-1 run that ended at the 4:48 mark of the third quarter.Instead of giving up, the Cards put together a 9-1 run and trailed 37-36 when Jake Hendricks, who scored all 10 of his points in the second half, converted a three-point play at the 2:20 mark of the third period. LHS senior Dusty Antoine completed the comeback when he drained a three-point shot with three seconds remaining in the stanza to give the Cards a 40-39 edge entering the fourth quarter."Jake (Henricks) gave us a spark, and Dusty (Antoine) hit some big threes for us in the third quarter," Rops offered.Luverne cashed in on 12 of 15 free throw opportunities and never lost the lead in the fourth quarter.A pair of free throws by Herman at the 7:09 mark of the final stanza gave the Cards a five-point cushion at 44-39, but the Rockets battled back to trim the difference to one point (47-46) with less than four minutes left to play.Hendricks knocked down a three at 3:19 to increase the lead to four points (50-46), and senior John Toftland settled the issue when he nailed a three-point shot with one minute remaining to give the Cards a 57-50 advantage.Rops didn’t like Tofteland’s decision to take a three-point shot with 1:00 remaining, but his opinion changed when the ball sailed through the net without touching the rim."It was one of the most beautiful shots I’ve ever seen," the coach said.Rockford managed to close the gap to three points (58-55) with 10.8 seconds remaining. Tofteland, who made eight free throws without a miss and led the Cards with 16 points, erased any thoughts of a Rockets’ rally when he drained two charity shots with 10 seconds left to play."On paper, Rockford is a team with a lot more size and depth," Rops said. "I was hoping we wouldn’t get blown out. Give our kids credit. We rode the wave and were able to get the job done."Both teams played well at times in the third half.LHS senior Jared Pick, who made six of eight field goals in the game and scored nine of his 14 points in the first half, scored his team’s first five points to give the Cards an early 5-2 lead. LHS led 9-7 before the Rockets scored the final four points of the first quarter to lead 11-7 at the break.After taking a brief 12-11 edge with a free throw from Antoine early in the second quarter, the Cards fell behind 15-12. But they put together an 11-2 run capped by a three-point shot from Tofteland at 2:35 that gave LHS a 23-17 cushion. Tofteland scored seven of the 11 points during the surge.Rockford answered the challenge by outscoring the Cards 11-0 the rest of the first half to lead 28-23 at the intermission.According to Herman, sticking to the game plan was the key to victory for LHS."Rockford is a more (physically) solid team than Crookston. We wanted to move the ball around and find the open man," Herman said. "They started in a man-to-man (defense) and switched to a 2-3 zone. We just kept moving the ball and found the open door."Luverne, which ends the season with a 21-9 record, received a nine-rebound effort from Brandon Deragisch. Tofteland added six rebounds and three assists to the winning cause.Box scorePick 6 0 2-7 14, Herman 3 0 2-4 8, Deragisch 0 0 5-6 5, Antoine 0 2 1-2 7, Tofteland 1 2 8-8 16, Haakenson 0 0 0-0 0, Ward 0 0 0-0 0, Hendricks 2 1 3-6 10, Boelman 0 0 0-0 0, Heronimus 0 0 0-0 0.Team statisticsLuverne: 17 of 35 field goals (49 percent), 21 of 33 free throws (64 percent), 31 rebounds, 12 turnovers.Rockford: 22 of 61 field goals (36 percent), five of five free throws (100 percent), 33 rebounds, eight turnovers.