“Mattoon’s zone is a good one,” Farmer said. “They’re long, quick and athletic. We definitely need work on preparing our zone offense. But we’ll be better.”

The game was tight throughout the first half. Two early baskets by Andrew Splechter and a three by Volpi helped the Hearts jump out to a 7-2 lead. But Cooper Bergstro scored seven points and the Green Wave came back to take a 12-11 lead after the opening eight minutes.

Volpi connected on another three to open the second period to put EHS back on top, 14-12, but Mattoon got back-to-back threes by Grace and Gate Thompson to reclaim the lead – and never trailed again. At intermission, the Green Wave led 22-18.

Mattoon featured a balanced scoring attack and had five different players connect from long range, finishing with seven made threes. Bergstro led the way with 15 points.

“They have a lot of good weapons,” Farmer noted. “They had not been making many threes; maybe three or four in a game. We knew they could shoot, but didn’t expect them to make that many.”

Effingham’s defensive focus was primarily on Bradbury, Mattoon’s 6’8” center. He finished with eight points.

“He had been scoring 20 points against the other teams,” Farmer said. “We felt we needed to stop him. Andrew did a phenomenal job guarding him.”

The Hearts had two players in double figures. Volpi knocked down four from behind the arc and finished with 14 points, while Garrett Wolfe made three from long range and had 13. Wolfe was named to the all-tournament team.

For the game, EHS made 39 percent of its shots, connecting on 14-of-36 attempts. The Hearts were 8-for-25 from three-point range and 4-for-7 from the foul line. Pals had 11 rebounds and Effingham committed 12 turnovers, with six of those coming in the fourth period.

The Hearts finished the tourney with a 2-2 record.

“We got a good look at our team this week,” Farmer said. “Overall, I liked what I saw, but we learned something very valuable. If we play our game and at our pace, we’re pretty good. If we play at the opponent’s pace, we’re not.”

Effingham was supposed to return to action Tuesday night at Taylorville, but that game was cancelled due to COVID issues there. The Hearts will now play Tuesday, Dec. 7, at Mattoon.