It wasn’t pretty.

But as Obie Farmer says, “An ugly win is better than a pretty loss.”

Ugly or not, Effingham returned home Thursday night with a 60-57 road victory over Taylorville in the Apollo Conference opener for both teams.

Garrett Wolfe hit a pair of free throws to put the Hearts ahead by five with just 10 seconds to play. The Tornados got a late basket, but the clock then ran out to secure the EHS win.

The game was close throughout. It was 13-13 after the first period and the Hearts had a slim 31-28 advantage at halftime. It was just a one-point EHS lead, 40-39, heading into the final eight minutes.

Effingham led by as many as six in the final period, but three-pointers by Will Turvey and Drake Howard got Taylorville close. Wolfe scored seven points in the fourth quarter and Logan Heil added six to help the Hearts stay on top.

Wolfe scored 11 of team’s first 13 points in the game and had 17 by intermission. He finished with a game-high 24. Heil scored 15, with 13 of those coming in the second half, and Andrew Donaldson added 10.

“We didn’t play well at all. It certainly wasn’t a clean game,” Farmer said. “We made a lot of mistakes and did just enough to a win. I’m looking forward to fixing a lot of those mistakes and growing from this game.”

Effingham, now 2-3, will play Mascoutah Saturday at the Marion Shootout. The game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.