The Luverne girls’ basketball team won both of its final regular season games and its first playoff game last week.
The Cardinals defeated Edgerton Public 69-47 on the road Tuesday, Feb. 22, to secure their 21st victory and end the regular season 21-4.
On Saturday night, the LHS girls, seeded No. 1 in Section 3AA-South, opened the tournament by hosting the No. 8-seeded Redwood Valley Cardinals.
The higher-seeded Cardinals had no trouble with the visitors, and Luverne defeated Redwood Valley 56-15 to advance to the sub-section semifinals.
Luverne traveled to Windom to face the No. 4-seeded Jackson County Central Huskies on Tuesday night after this edition of the Star Herald went to press.
A win would have Luverne playing the winner of Minnesota Valley Lutheran vs. Fairmont in the sub-section championship Friday night at 7 p.m. at a location to be determined.
A victory on Friday would mean a trip to the Section 3AA championship game on March 11 at SMSU in Marshall.
Luverne 69, Edgerton 47
The Cardinals ended the regular season with a 69-47 victory over Edgerton Public Feb. 22 in Edgerton.
While both teams shot 50 percent from the field, Luverne had the advantage making nine three-pointers compared to two for Edgerton.
The Cardinals also out-shot the Dutchmen at the free-throw line with 14 points from the charity stripe compared to nine for Edgerton.
Luverne led 34-22 at halftime and grew its lead in the second half outpacing Edgerton 35-25.
Christina Wagner led all scorers with 26 points. Both Brooklynn Ver Steeg and Averill Sehr added ten points for the Cardinals.
Box Score:
C. Wagner 6 3 5-6 26, Beyer 0 1 1-2 4, Ver Steeg 3 1 1-2 10, Sehr 1 1 5-7 10, Stegenga 0 0 0-0 0, Sandbulte 0 0 0-0 0, John 3 0 0-4 6, Smith 0 0 0-0 0, Serie 1 1 0-0 5, Bloemendaal 0 0 0-0 0, Hansen 0 2 0-0 6, Schmuck 0 0 1-2 1, Hart 0 0 1-2 1
Team Stats:
Luverne: 23 of 46 (50 percent), 14 of 25 free throws (56 percent), 22 rebounds, 17 turnovers
Edgerton: 18 of 36 (50 percent), 9 of 16 free throws (56 percent), 23 rebounds, 29 turnovers
Luverne 56, Redwood Valley 15
It was a traditional unbalanced affair between the No. 1 seed and the No. 8 seed when the Luverne Cardinals hosted the Redwood Valley girls in the Luverne Classic Gym for the first round of Section 3AA-South tournament play Saturday night.
The host Cardinals led the Redwood Valley Cardinals 33-8 at halftime and outscored the visitors 23-7 in the second half to secure the 56-15 victory.
Kira John led all scorers with 15 points for Luverne. Christina Wagner had 13 points.
John also pulled in 11 rebounds for the Cardinals. Wagner and Averill Sehr had ten rebounds each in the game.
The comfortable first-round win allowed Luverne to show its depth with nine LHS players scoring points.
Box Score:
C. Wagner 4 1 2-3 13, Beyer 2 1 1-1 8, Ver Steeg 1 0 2-2 4, Sehr 3 0 0-0 6, Stegenga 0 1 0-0 3, Sandbulte 1 0 0-0 2, John 6 0 2-2 14, Smith 1 0 0-0 2, Serie 0 0 0-0 0, Bloemendaal 0 0 0-0 0, Hansen 2 0 0-0 4, Schmuck 0 0 0-0 0
Team Stats:
Luverne: 23 of 62 (37 percent), 7 of 8 free throws (88 percent), 38 rebounds, 16 turnovers
RWV: 6 of 33 (18 percent), 1 of 6 free throws (17 percent), 28 rebounds, 33 turnovers