After an 11-day layoff, the Effingham Hearts returned to the basketball court Tuesday night.

And the results were not good.

The Hearts didn’t make a basket until the second quarter, fell behind quickly and dropped a lopsided 64-24 decision at Mattoon.

“We couldn’t get into a flow,” said EHS coach Obie Farmer. “You could tell Mattoon had a couple games since we played last. You can’t replicate true game speed in practice. You can try as much as you want to make things game-like, but there is no substitute for game reps.”

Effingham was scheduled to play Taylorville last Thursday, but the game had to be cancelled due to COVID issues in Taylorville. The affect of such a long layoff became apparent from the very beginning Tuesday night.

The Hearts managed just four free throws and trailed 12-4 after the opening eight minutes. Things just got worse from there. The Green Wave led 26-11 at halftime, 43-18 after three quarters and then went on a 21-6 scoring run to close out the game.

“They do things really well on the defensive end,” Farmer noted. “They are long and cover passing lanes well. Their zone defense is really solid.

“And we didn’t play tough basketball,” the EHS coach added. “Plus, we made a lot of mental mistakes, got lost on our defensive assignments and couldn’t penetrate their zone. We struggled the entire game. Toughness encompasses a lot of things and we talk about it often. But we didn’t play with any toughness in this game.”

Garrett Wolfe had 13 points for Effingham, while Mattoon had two players in double figures – Cooper Bergstrom with 15 points and Jaylen Middleton with 13.

The Hearts dipped to 2-3 on the season and are now 0-1 in the Apollo Conference. They will return to conference play Friday night with a road game at Mahomet-Seymour.

“We have a lot to work on,” Farmer said. “We have an inexperienced team, so the more games we get under our belt, the better we will be. As long as we continue to grow and be receptive to criticism, we will improve.”