Neither team shot the ball well in the first half – other than Highland’s Brenden Gelly, that is. The senior forward knocked down four three-pointers – including three in the second period. But Garrett Wolfe and Spencer Fox combined to score 13 points in the final 5:47 to give EHS a 27-20 lead. Gelly’s fourth shot from long range made it a 27-23 advantage at halftime.

“Overall, I didn’t feel our effort was very good that first half,” Farmer noted. “We talked about that at halftime. I told them we needed to play with more energy. When they came back out, they turned it up. We got up by as many as 17 points because the kids bought in and really played hard.”

That third quarter was the difference.

Logan Heil grabbed a rebound and scored and Andrew Splechter followed with a three-point play to quickly increase the lead to nine. After a Highland free throw, Andrew Donaldson drained a three from the corner to give EHS its first double-digit advantage, 35-24.

It was an eight-point spread when Donaldson connected again from long range and Wolfe added a pair of foul shots to send the Hearts into the final eight minutes with a 42-29 advantage.

Back-to-back baskets by Splechter and Ethan Jones to open the fourth quarter gave the Hearts their largest lead of the game, 46-29. The Bulldogs were never able to get closer than 12 the rest of the way.

“I don’t think they were prepared for us to come out in a 1-2-2 press,” Farmer noted. “We went man-to-man the first couple possessions of the second half, but then went back to the zone. I thought we did a better job closing out on their shooters the second half, especially Gelly.”

This was the surprise score of the opening round. Highland came into the game as the heavy favorite.

“I know nobody picked us to win and that’s understandable,” Farmer said. “But the kids played really hard. That’s a good basketball team we beat tonight.”

Altadonna led Highland with 13 points and Gelly finished with 12. He missed all four of his three-point attempts in the second half and didn’t score.

Wolfe led all scorers with 21 points and Splechter added 10 for the Hearts. EHS shot 40 overall, connecting on 20-of-50 attempts. They made 4-of-15 shots from behind the arc and were 9-for-17 at the foul line. They turned the ball over 12 times and held a 29-25 rebounding edge. Wolfe, Splechter, Fox and Heil each had six boards.

The Hearts improved to 5-8 on the season. They will play two games on Thursday at Effingham High School. They will face Pleasant Plains at 1:30 p.m. The winner of that game will play either Lincoln Way East or Champaign Centennial at 7:30 p.m. The losers of that game will meet at 6 p.m.