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The Luverne and Hills-Beaver Creek girls’ basketball teams faced off in Hills Tuesday, Dec. 20, with the Cardinals topping the Patriots 79-21 in the non-conference win.
With the win over Hills-Beaver Creek, Luverne’s season record is 5-0, and they lead the Big South West Conference with a record of 2-0.
H-BC now stands at 2-4 for the regular season with the loss to Luverne, but the Patriots are leading the Red Rock Conference with a record of 2-0 after wins over Edgerton and Murray County Central.
“We have made it through the stretch of tough non-conference opponents,” H-BC head coach Dylan Gehrke said. “These games will hopefully help prepare us for our conference games coming up.”
The Patriots struggled to score in the first half Tuesday night, leading to the Cardinals taking a commanding lead of 55-7 at the half.
“I think our defensive pressure set the tone early. We were able to get turnovers and push the ball up the floor for easy buckets,” said Luverne head coach TJ Newgard.
In the game H-BC turned over the ball 32 times to Luverne’s 15.
Leading the scoring for the Cardinals was senior Elizabeth Wagner with 27 points, followed by junior Kiesli Smith with 13, senior Emma Beyer with 12, and eight points by junior Sarah Stegenga.
Defensively junior Kira John grabbed eight rebounds, one steal, two assists and five deflections.
Senior Christina Wagner contributed seven rebounds, three steals, seven assists and three deflections.
Senior Elizabeth Wagner posted six rebounds, three steals, five assists and a team high for the night of seven deflections.
Helping out were senior Averill Sehr with six steals and two assists and senior Jocelyn Hart with four rebounds, two steals, one assist and two deflections.
For the Patriots junior Layla Deelstra posted four points, four rebounds, two assists and one blocked shot.
Freshman Abbie Harris had three points, six rebounds and one assist.
Senior Olivia Bork had three points, one rebound, one steal and one blocked shot.
Eighth-grader Olivia Deelstra made three points, one rebound, one assist, two steals and one blocked shot.
Defensively junior Lanae Elbers grabbed six rebounds and one steal.
Junior Brynn Rauk had eight rebounds.
After the Christmas break, Luverne is scheduled to travel to Windom Tuesday, Jan.3, and then host Marshall Friday, Jan. 6
Hills-Beaver Creek has an away game at Elkton-Lake Benton Tuesday, Jan. 3, and then hosts Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda Thursday, Jan. 5.