TROJAN GIRLS BASKETBALL: Trojans take down Cardinals

LUVERNE — Worthington had a dominant first half and a lackluster second half during a 64-41 Southwest Conference girls basketball win at Luverne on Tuesday.

The Trojans, who improved to 10-3 overall and 6-1 in league play, constructed a 23-2 lead in the first 7½ minutes, but held a narrow 41-37 advantage the rest of the way.

“In the first half, we were executing, we were passing the ball, we were catching it, we were finishing and we were playing good defense,” Worthington head coach Eric Lindner said. “All of a sudden, we lost focus in the second half, let Luverne shoot some shots and the lead dwindled down to 20 (points). We just can’t go through with playing this ‘chaos’ style of basketball.”

Paige Gravenhof (16 points, three assists) and Ana Boever (14 points, nine rebounds, five blocked shots, three assists) supplied nearly half of the Trojans’ offense. They combined to sink six 3-pointers as Worthington outscored Luverne 18-9 from behind the arc.

McKayla Schilling’s layup at the 16:17 mark of the first half was the only basket the Cardinals received as the Trojans, who scored the first three points, took control right from the start.

Gravenhof kickstarted Worthington’s attack with a top-of-the-key 3-pointer and a 6-2 lead a little less than 4 minutes into the contest.

Whitney Coriolan came off the Trojans’ bench to produce seven of her 10 points during the run WHS made at the start.

Lydia Kemper, who also had 10 points off the bench, gave Worthington its biggest lead of the first half (33-11) after she converted an old-fashioned 3-point play with 1:06 left before the break.

Boever buried both of her 3-point shots in the initial 9½ minutes as the Trojans took a 26-6 advantage.

Luverne, which was limited to 35 percent (16 of 46) shooting in the game, knocked down only 4 of 31 shots (13 percent) in the first half. Worthington connected with 61 percent (23 of 38) shooting overall, including 6 of 11 (55 percent) from 3-point range.

“We turned the ball over quite a bit in the first half, but we also missed a lot of short shots and layups that we could have easily made,” Luverne head coach Corey Nelson said. “We didn’t force too many of our shots and we had some good looks. If those shots go down, it could have been a much different game.”

After the Trojans created their biggest lead at 49-18 with 11:55 left, Lindner became frustrated with Worthington’s patience in running its halfcourt offense.

“Our girls need to understand that they need to run our halfcourt offense, they need to be patient and they need to get better looks (at the basket),” Lindner said. “In this chaos, all we were doing was turning the ball over.”

Nelson said Worthington’s ‘chaos’ worked against Luverne.

“Worthington tries to get you running and it caused some of our players to panick in the first half,” Nelson said. “We make mistakes whenever we panick and that’s what a team like Worthington wants us to do. If we don’t panick, we would be fine.”

The result was the Cardinals’ first opportunity to come alive in the game. Luverne scored 23 of the final 38 points to gain some momentum after withstanding Worthington’s assault for the first 26 minutes.

Nikki Severson dropped in her only 3-pointer to spark the LHS comeback before the Cardinals generated eight of the next 10 points primarily on baskets from Schilling and Kaitlin Wohnoutka.

Schilling, who topped Luverve with 14 points, was the Cardinals’ only double-digit scorer. Wohnoutka and Morgan Haugen each added seven points as LHS dropped to 6-8 overall and 3-3 in the SWC.

Lindner said he would like to see more production from the Trojans’ frontcourt players.

“We’re getting concerned with having too many points coming from the perimeter,” Lindner said. “Good teams are going to lock us down, defensively, and we have to find other ways to score.”

Luverne plays at Jackson County Central at 6 p.m. Thursday, while Worthington hosts Windom Area at 6 p.m. Friday.

WORTHINGTON 64,

LUVERNE 41

WORTHINGTON (10-3, 6-1): Boever 6 0-0 14, Ebbers 0 0-0 0, Landgaard 1 0-1 2, Henning 0 0-2 0, Kemper 3 4-5 10, Bruns 0 0-0 0, Linder 0 0-0 0, Gravenhof 4 4-6 16, Riley 2 1-3 5, Thongvanh 2 0-0 4, Ac. Alwal 0 0-0 0, Coriolan 4 2-3 10, Ap. Alwal 1 1-2 3. Totals: 23 12-22 64.

LUVERNE (6-8, 3-3): Peterson 0 0-0 0, Wohnoutka 3 1-4 7, Schilling 6 2-3 14, Stanley 0 0-0 0, Rust 0 0-1 0, Haugen 2 1-3 7, N. Kneip 2 0-0 4, Severson 1 0-0 3, D. Kneip 0 0-0 0, Sudenga 2 2-6 6. Totals: 16 6-17 41.

Worthington 33 31 — 64

Luverne 11 30 — 41

3-Point Goals: Worthington 6 (Gravenhof 4, Boever 2); Luverne 3 (Haugen 2, Severson). Rebounds: Worthington 38 (Boever 9, Kemper 7); Luverne 31. Total Fouls (Fouled Out): Worthington 16 (none); Luverne 17 (none). Technical Fouls: None. Assists: Worthington 16 (Boever 3, Landgaard 3, Gravenhof 3); Luverne 11. Steals: Worthington 15 (Landgaard 3, Kemper 3, Riley 3); Luverne 10. Blocked Shots: Worthington 11 (Boever 5, Ap. Alwal 4); Luverne 4. Turnovers: Worthington 24, Luverne 29.

Tags: sports, prep, basketball, girls, trojans, luverne