The Effingham Hearts used a big second quarter Tuesday night to open a double-digit lead and then rolled to a 63-48 victory at home over Mattoon.

Effingham led 10-5 after the first eight minutes and then went on a 17-6 scoring spree. Garrett Wolfe knocked down a three and scored five points and Ethan Jones, Andrew Splechter and Logan Heil each score four, helping the Hearts take a 27-11 lead at halftime.

“Mattoon struggled getting shots and getting to the basket in that second quarter,” EHS coach Obie Farmer said. “Plus, we showed real good balance on offense. We moved the ball well and when things opened up, our guys capitalized on their opportunities. We also scored points off turnovers tonight.”

Things started to “open up” after Heil scored all 10 of Effingham’s points in the opening period.

“We fed Logan early,” Farmer noted. “When they started to collapse on him, he passed the ball out for open shot after open shot. We also did a good job of crashing the boards.”

The Green Wave closed to within 40-29 after three quarters and got as close as 10 early in the final period. But Andrew Donaldson and Wolfe connected on back-to-back three-pointers to expand the lead to 16. The Hearts led by as many as 20.

Heil and Wolfe both scored 15 points to lead EHS, while Splechter added 14.

“I told the kids before the game that energy and effort would win us this game,” Farmer said. “They bought into that. Our goal is to out-work everybody we play. If we do that, things will work out.”

Effingham, now 3-4 overall and 2-0 in the Apollo Conference, will play two more homes games this week – Friday against Mahomet-Seymour in another conference contest; and Saturday against Mt. Vernon.