“We didn’t put the ball in the places we were supposed to,” EHS coach Obie Farmer said. “We needed to move the ball more and we let the traps come rather than working away from them.”
Logan Heil, who turned in an impressive double-double performance for the Hearts, scored to open the final quarter, but that was the only basket EHS scored until the closing seconds.
The Wildcats pressure continued to create turnovers, the Hearts missed what few shots they did get and Salem continued to trim the margin. Stroud was the sparkplug. After scoring just five points through three quarters, the junior guard got hot, scoring 10 of his 15 points in the final eight minutes.
His first three-pointer of the quarter made it a four-point game, 42-38 at the midway point. He converted another EHS turnover into a bucket to tie the game at 44-44. After Garrett Wolfe hit a pair of foul shots to put Effingham back on top, Stroud nailed another from long range to give the Wildcats their only lead of the contest, 47-46, with just 46 seconds to play.
“I felt like their press changed the game in a big way,” Farmer noted. “They turned us over a few times and hit shots at the other end. That pressure can build confidence and momentum and that is what turned the game around.”
But on the Hearts final possession, Gunner Brown made a strong move to the basket, and when the Salem defenders collapsed on him, he made a nice pass to Heil, who scored the game-winner.
“That was a great play by Gunner,” Farmer said. “He made the defenders come to him and then he gave Logan a nice feed.”
Until the late surge, Effingham was in control.
Garrett Wolfe had a three-point play, Donaldson connected on a shot from long range and Heil hit a short jumper to put the Hearts on top, 15-4, after the opening eight minutes.
Another three-point play by Wolfe, a bucket by Heil and a score by Brown after a Salem turnover increased the margin to 15 points, 24-9 midway through the second period. But the Wildcats finished the quarter on a 7-2 run to get within 26-16 at halftime.
Salem got within eight early in the second half before the Hearts went on their run to open the 17-point gap and set the stage for the final 10 minutes of the game.
“We definitely bent but didn’t break,” Farmer noted. “We didn’t do the right things to let them come back. We went to sleep a little in that fourth quarter and let their pressure turn the game. But at the end of the day, there’s no such thing as a bad win.”
Heil finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds.
“Logan had an excellent game,” the EHS coach said. “He moved underneath and made himself available. He carried us.”
Wolfe was also in double figures with 11 points and Donaldson finished with eight. The Hearts shot 46 percent overall, connecting on 17-of-37 attempts. They were 3-for-9 from behind the arc and 11-for-15 from the foul line. They held a 32-21 rebounding advantage.
Effingham improved to 9-14 on the season.
