By Mark HaugenCoach Jason Phelps figured that consistent play would be an early problem for the Luverne girls basketball team. He was right as the Cardinals lost their season-opener 63-52 to Lincoln HI on Tuesday, Nov. 23, in Ivanhoe.Luverne clung close early, trailing only 13-12 after the first quarter and 28-23 at halftime, but couldn’t get over the hump."We played well at times," Phelps said. "We had a run of eight straight points there in the first half. We would look good for a couple of minutes at a time and then had times defensively when we gave them open looks, especially in the second half."The Cardinals, 0-2, had trouble stopping Lincoln HI’s Tiffany Sitterman, who nailed six 3-pointers, and then had trouble hitting their own 3-pointers (0-8)."That was the difference. We didn’t make our open shots so we had trouble making runs back against them," Phelps said. "We’ve always talked about consistency on offense but we need it on defense too. We had a little trouble putting bodies on somebody rebounding."Sam Gacke led Luverne with 14 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. Ashley Heitkamp netted 10 points, while Maggie Kuhlman notched five steals and six assists."Lincoln got a nice lead up to 15 in the fourth quarter and we kept coming back," Phelps said. "We had it under 10 with less than two minutes to go, but never quite got it all the way back."Luverne plays Thursday at Pipestone in its first conference game of the year and then is at Southwest Christian on Saturday."Offensively we’ve had four or five different double-figure scorers in our first two games. We need to have them all contribute on the same night. We’ve been good on balance but just had a number of possessions where we give up the ball and give them too many open looks."Box ScoreHeitkamp 4 2-2 10, Nieuwboer 3 0-1 6, Snyder 2 2-4 6, Petersen 0 0-0 0, Kuhlman 3 2-6 8, Gacke 7 0-0 14, Evans 2 4-5 8. Team: 21 10-18 52.Team totals:3-pointers: L 0-8. 2-pt shooting: L 21-46 for 45.7 percent; Rebounds: L 21 (Gacke 10); Assists: L 12 (Kuhlman 6, Snyder 3); Turnovers: L 24; Blocks: L 4 (Gacke 4).