The Luverne Lady Tigers came out fighting last Friday night when Calhoun came to town, but they soon lost their early lead and ended up with a heartbreaking 58-46 loss. This was the Lady Tigers’ first area game (0-1).

Luverne wasted no time putting points on the board during the first quarter as they had the visiting Lady Tigers down 16-4 with 1:16 left in the first quarter.

Luverne was grabbing the rebounds and hitting the backboard as Calhoun racked up turnovers and missed shots, leading to an 18-8 Luverne lead going into the second quarter.

The Lady Tigers showed good hustle and quick passing skills on the court, but Calhoun began to creep their way back into the game. With 5:11 left in the second quarter, Calhoun had closed in the score to 20-16. Luverne began turning over the ball, and Calhoun profited from LHS’s mistakes as they closed in on the Lady Tigers 26-25 by the end of the first half.

During the third quarter, fans saw a different Calhoun team as the visiting Lady Tigers began adding points to the board. Luverne fought to keep up with them, but by the end of the third quarter, Calhoun had taken a 44-37 lead.

But Luverne had not given up just yet. During the fourth quarter, the Lady Tigers kept adding points to the board, but they couldn’t keep up with Calhoun as the visiting Lady Tigers seemed to have come alive during the second half of the game. Calhoun handed Luverne its first area loss for the season.

Leading scorers for Luverne were Ashley Hall with 15 points and Heather Bagents with 11 points and 7 rebounds. Asha Rogers had 9 points and 10 rebounds, and Beth Wood pulled down 8 rebounds. Ashley Hall grabbed 5 steals.

“I think we play ourselves too tough, too aggressive early in the game, and then start making wild passes,” LHS head coach Carolyn Williams said. “This was our first region loss; it was a heartbreaker.”

The Luverne Lady Tigers have a 9-4 overall season record and are 0-1 in the region.